Miriam Sallon Archives - Page 53 of 63

★★★

“whilst the execution isn’t quite as slick as it could be, Watts has done well in discovering a long-discarded play which speaks volumes to a modern audience”

Director Graham Watts’ mission is commendable: he is seeking out the works of women playwrights that have never seen the light of day; not lost works, but rather those plays that were never even found. And in ‘Garry’, written way back in 1954, he has discovered a story with plenty of meat for a twenty-first century audience.

Wilma (Phebe Alys), a doting newlywed, is so completely devoted to her husband Garry (Thomas Martin) that she fails to see past what he tells her, to who he truly is. This is due in large part to the fact that he doesn’t know either. Decades ahead of her time, Sophie Treadwell contemplates the psychological trauma caused by believing homosexuality to be “dirty”, and the potentially lethal repercussions of denying who you are and what you want. Peggy (Claire Bowman), Garry’s sister, adds another interesting component as a happy prostitute, considering her work as a means to sating her own appetite.

Unfortunately, whilst the content of the play has some interesting elements, it’s hard to suspend disbelief owing to the obvious immense concentration required by most of the cast to hold on to their American accents. Phebe Alys is an exception however, consistent in both her sweet southern cadence and her commitment to her character’s intense vulnerability. She lays it on a little thick in parts, but it suits the slightly over-dramatic style of the era.

The soundtrack (Stuart Bowditch) acts as more of a prop, consisting mostly of whatever radio channel the characters tune in to, that is until the closing scene. The lights come down to a hopeful piano sonata as Alys and Matthew Wellard (playing Dave Andrews, a journalist and interested party) look on dreamily over an imaginary horizon, tying everything up in to a neat little ending as though to say, everything’s going to be alright now. Not to give the game away too much, but I’m not sure that’s true… I mean, someone was murdered, and someone else was waving a gun around threatening to kill a stranger only a moment before.

But whilst the execution isn’t quite as slick as it could be, Watts has done well in discovering a long-discarded play which speaks volumes to a modern audience. Perhaps this is the beginning of a Sophie Treadwell revival; I look forward to seeing what other exciting works her peers didn’t appreciate.

Reviewed by Miriam Sallon

Photography by Ali Wright

The Night of the Burning Pestle

Barbican

Reviewed – 5th June 2019

★★★★

“Nick Ormerod has done a fair bit to bring the production to a modern audience, but the plot and original satire still stand”

There’s that idea of theatre, that people who don’t go to the theatre think of when they think of theatre – in short, it’s pretentious, abstract and incomprehensible. Or it’s Shakespeare, but, like, one of the ones no-one knows. And in truth, even to the seasoned theatre goer, facing such an evening can be equally nightmarish.

Cheek By Jowl’s ‘The Knight of the Burning Pestle’ begins with such a nightmare: the set (Nick Ormerod) consists solely of a white monolith centre-stage, from behind which the cast, dressed entirely in monochrome (Bilan Valentina), slowly emerges, to the long, monotone burr of a cello (Pavel Akimkin).

A man’s bust (Kirill Sbitnev), projected on to the monolith, begins a booming monologue in opaque seventeenth century language as the cast moves abstractly around the stage. The first scene is more of the same – you just about get the gist, but, being in Russian it grows quickly tiresome having to crane your head to read the surtitles and untangle the meaning, and occasionally flick a glance down to see what’s actually happening on stage. Five minutes in, however, we’re interrupted by a man in his fifties from the second row (Alexander Feklistov) and his wife (Agrippina Steklova) who clamber on stage, to report that they don’t understand what’s happening, that maybe the audience would prefer a different kind of story. The two decide that instead there should be a story about a knight! Who kills a lion! With a Pestle! And they have just the man for the job- their man-child nephew Rafe (Nazar Safonov), also sitting in the audience who eagerly runs to join them. Thereafter continues a strange hostage situation, where the cast are trying desperately to continue on with their play whilst incorporating Rafe’s knight, and placating this eccentric- and very vocal couple who have decided to sit on stage for the rest of the performance.

Having been written in 1607, director Nick Ormerod has done a fair bit to bring the production to a modern audience, but the plot and original satire still stand, and it’s as relevant now as it ever it was. Rafe’s ridiculous ‘knight’s adventure’ storyline along with his hobby horse ‘steed’ and the big orchestral music accompanying him, in contrast to the drab, solemnity of the ‘real’ play, reminds us that sometimes all we want is a big adventure, a happy ending and a song and dance. And that’s exactly what we get – dance and all (as choreographed by Irina Kashuba).

Whilst it seems much of the translation is condensed so as to avoid missing the action on stage, the absurd comedy of it all still comes across. A seventeenth century love triangle, a medieval knight’s adventure, and a pushy old Russian couple may seem an unlikely combination, but it’s a winning one, and a must-see.

White Bear Theatre

Reviewed – 6th June 2019

★★★

“whilst the execution isn’t quite as slick as it could be, Watts has done well in discovering a long-discarded play which speaks volumes to a modern audience”

Reviewed by Miriam Sallon

Photography by Ali Wright

Garry

White Bear Theatre until 22nd June

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Barbican

Reviewed – 5th June 2019

★★★★

“Nick Ormerod has done a fair bit to bring the production to a modern audience, but the plot and original satire still stand”

Reviewed by Miriam Sallon

Photography by Johan Persson

The Night of the Burning Pestle

Barbican until 8th June

Last ten shows covered by this reviewer:

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