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Graceful – 3 Stars

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Graceful

Graceful

Rosemary Branch Theatre

Reviewed – 9th August 2018

★★★

“a celebration of womanhood, revealing it in all its guts and glory”

 

Being a woman can be bloody difficult at times. It certainly can have its ups and downs. New play Graceful, with its all-female cast, tries to encapsulate these difficulties, finding an inventive way to shine a light on the complexities us ladies battle within ourselves daily. Through humour and heartache Graceful simply shares a snapshot in time within the lives of two women suddenly pushed together.

Seventeen year old Grace (Chloe Jane Astleford) is sent to live with a distant relative of her father’s while he checks himself into rehab to deal with his alcoholism. Thirty-eight year old Rhonda (Eleanor Dillon-Reams) is there to take Grace in. She’s single and has never been a mum. Grace is introverted and has never had a mum. Should these two women fulfil the mother and daughter roles? Or, are they destined be more like friends? While learning to cohabit with one another, and beginning to learn more about the other, their relationship intensifies once all their cards are put on the table. Catherine Brown and Asha Reid play Grace and Rhonda’s inner selves, serving as the commentators and judges of the characters’ actions and memories. Hearing the inner mechanisms of these women’s minds, allows the most personal of thoughts, desires and wishes to rise to the surface.

Having an insight into such intimate feelings, particularly that of women, feels refreshing, if not also very much of our time right now. With such movements as #metoo and #timesup gathering momentum, Graceful explores the effects of some of the issues these groups are wanting to abolish. Writer Hayley Ricketson does a pleasing job at highlighting other relevant matters encompassing women in 2018, making a distinction between what is worrying teenagers and what is worrying the middle-aged woman. Combined with themes of sexuality and the reclaiming of the female body, Graceful is a celebration of womanhood, revealing it in all its guts and glory.

Being character focused rather than story driven, means that the discussion of deeply buried emotions takes prestige over an action packed storyline, which at times, drags the ninety minute running time. However, director Mike Cottrell sensitively handles the material primarily about the female psyche. All four cast members give credible performances, yet I would like to see more of a facial/physical/verbal connection to the Inner Selves and the character they are the minds of. Despite the nit-picking, all in all, this is a solid new piece of work, adding to the much needed change of tides currently occurring, giving all women a voice.

 

Reviewed by Phoebe Cole

Photography by Edwina Strobl

 

Rosemary Branch Theatre

Graceful

Rosemary Branch Theatre

 

 

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Greek

The Complete Greek Tragedies (in One Hour)

Rosemary Branch Theatre

Reviewed – 14th November 2017 

★★★

“All three actors showcased undeniable talent”

 

Catharsis Theatre formed in 2014 with the remit of making ‘radical new adaptations of Greek drama’. They’ve certainly fulfilled that brief with The Complete Greek Tragedies (in One Hour) even if it’s in a somewhat quirky way.

The initial pretence was that the audience was in for a 31 hour epic portrayal of the complete Greek tragedies. This was soon cut short when Jake (played perfectly by Iain Gibbons) decided to air his grievances about the production to the voice of the great god above – Dionysus.

Dionysus, being a good caretaker of the theatre, implemented a plan to cut the production to just one hour. This caused panic among the other two actors. Cassie (played by the extremely talented Sophie Taylor) tried to maintain a high brow sense of decorum during the hastily curtailed performance, while Jake and Marianna (Christina Holmbek) plotted against her, to try to complete each story as succinctly as possible.

Even by trying to simplify Greek tragedy into the form of popular culture bites such as ‘Big Brother’ and ‘Beyonce’, the show just highlighted these classic Greek stories remain as complicated whether they are shown during an hour long production or in their entirety. Who knows who murdered the mother, the brother, the husband or the wife and goodness knows why? This production certainly didn’t do much to enlighten me, but perhaps with the ensuing chaos on stage, that was the point.

As the number and pace of the Tragedies increased, alongside the mounting number of dead characters, the cast remained stoically energetic. Their enthusiasm kept my interest, despite the lack of clarity in the storyline. All three actors showcased undeniable talent through their smooth character changes, frenzied dancing and singing alongside their all too realistic portrayal of drunkenness.

All in all, the play was an enjoyable watch but still has scope for further development.

 

Reviewed by Alice Taylor

Photography courtesy Catharsis Theatre

 

 

Rosemary Branch Theatre

 

THE COMPLETE GREEK TRAGEDIES (IN ONE HOUR)

is at the Rosemary Branch Theatre until 15th November

 

 

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