Tilted Wig Archives - thespyinthestalls.com

★★★★

“it is the storming performance of Cameron Robertson’s Creature that will live in the memory”

Tilted Wig presents a telling of Mary Shelley’s classic Victorian novel adapted and directed by Séan Aydon. The story begins in a lonely wooden hut somewhere in the cold frozen wilds. A starving traveller bangs on the door and is admitted by the scared and suspicious person living within. There is palpable tension in a scene almost devoid of dialogue. Both strangers have a story to tell but it is that of Doctor Victoria Frankenstein that we will see acted out before us.

The cabin moves away to reveal the Doctor’s laboratory. The set (designer Nicky Bunch) is a minimalist masterpiece. Shelves with a myriad of illuminated jars containing who knows what, skulls in cabinets. A half-tiled wall resembles that of the morgue or the asylum. Dominating the rear of the stage is a huge window like that of a church or cathedral. Doctor Frankenstein (Eleanor McLoughlin) and her assistant Francine (Annette Hannah) are about to complete an audacious experiment – the creation of life – by conducting an impending lightning strike into a mismatch of body parts and organs.

We are introduced to Henry (Dale Mathurin), a physicist sickened by the gooiness of biology, and Victoria’s love interest. But there is little spark between the two characters and it is hard to believe in their romance. The dialogue is stilted and some attempts at humour don’t land. Victoria’s sister Elizabeth (Lula Marsh) – feminine, colourful and vivacious against Victoria’s androgenous, drab, and dowdy – arrives unannounced and then as quickly departs.

The audience awaits the introduction of the Creature to lift the production above the pedestrian. Cameron Robertson is outstanding, bringing the Creature to life with a great deal of twitching, moaning and gurning. We feel his pain. With the help of excellent make-up and prosthetics (Missy Brazier), he is repulsive to look at and Robertson commands the stage, his movements deliberately awkward and clumsy with a drop of the shoulder and a twisted gait. A number of jump-scares add to the power of the storytelling.

Elements of the Gothic are seen in the extended flashes of lightning through the large window (lighting Matt Haskins), but this production skilfully avoids any slide into cliché or shtick. An eerie soundtrack of music and electronics (composer Eamonn O’Dwyer), reminiscent of a film soundtrack, heightens the tension at key moments.

This adaptation is set in pre-war Germany and there are sufficient mentions of master race ambitions for us to understand the writer’s suggestions. There are sinister undertones in the speech of Dr Richter (Basienka Blake) which are shown in her open disgust of Francine and Henry. The actor shows off her vocal versatility too with a role and accent so different to that of her earlier appearance in the wooden hut. A powerful scene between the Doctor and Francine raises the question of responsibilities with McLaughlin and Hannah’s performances reaching a new level of passion and earnestness.

Mary Shelley’s story is passably narrated in this two-hour adaptation. Much of the work falls on the competent but overly fastidious Eleanor McLaughlin as the Doctor but it is the storming performance of Cameron Robertson’s Creature that will live in the memory.

Murder, Margaret & Me

Churchill Theatre Bromley

Reviewed – 27th September 2019

★★

“maintains what can only be described as a majestic pace throughout”

In Murder, Margaret and Me by Philip Meeks, and produced by Tilted Wig Productions, mystery writer Agatha Christie turns sleuth as she attempts to discover tragedy, and a murder, buried in the childhood of film star Margaret Rutherford. It sounds like an intriguing idea for a play, and playwright Meeks sets up Murder, Margaret and Me as a three hander for “women of a certain age” as he puts it in the programme. Based on true facts about Christie and Rutherford, this play even has all the elements of glamour one would expect in a story about a bestselling author, a film star and an ever-knitting hanger-on (who, as a devoted fan, keeps the action moving along).

Set in 1962, Murder, Margaret and Me opens on a film set in Pinewood Studios as Christie discovers that she and Rutherford have very different ideas about how Christie’s character Miss Marple should be played. In a ruthless attempt to wrest control of her creation back from Rutherford and her Hollywood producers, Christie sets out on a mission to discover all she can about Rutherford and what really lurks behind the beloved star’s eccentric public persona. Of course, Christie herself has a few skeletons buried inside her closet, and as the play proceeds, we get tantalising clues about those as well.

This is such rich material, and it is presented to us by the gifted cast of Lin Blakley (as Christie), Sarah Parks (as Rutherford) and Gilly Tompkins (as The Spinster). Director Damian Cruden does solid work, as do designers Dawn Allsopp and Richard G Jones. The costumes, supervised by Molly Syrett, give an appropriate sense of period. But if audiences come expecting to be held on the edge of their seats in the same way that Christie holds us in her novels, they will be disappointed.

Murder, Margaret and Me maintains what can only be described as a majestic pace throughout. While this gives the audience ample time to reflect on how artistic rivalries can ultimately poison a blossoming friendship, it does not create the sense of suspense and excitement that usually accompanies this kind of subject matter. Despite the witty dialogue and engaging characters, Meeks takes too long to bring all the elements of his plot together. Furthermore, there are some elements that are not well integrated, such as at the opening of the second half, where a before the curtain address to the audience gives advice on how to keep your man. (Christie advises marrying an archaeologist since “the older you get, the more interested in you he becomes”). The Spinster (or should she really be called the Knitter?) is a two-dimensional character at best, despite Gilly Tompkins’ best efforts to make her more fully realised.

This is a well-intentioned effort to show that women who come to success later in life have all the energy and passion required to imagine great futures for themselves, and to play hard to get them, even when swathed in tweeds, pearls and knitting. But it falls short in the attempt. Actresses of the calibre required to play characters like Christie and Rutherford should have opportunities to be let loose to show the full range of human passions, especially when rooted in childhood tragedy, and betrayals of art, love and friendship.

FRANKENSTEIN at the Cambridge Arts Theatre

★★★★

“it is the storming performance of Cameron Robertson’s Creature that will live in the memory”

FRANKENSTEIN at the Cambridge Arts Theatre

Reviewed on 3rd October 2023

by Phillip Money

Photography by Robling Photography

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Frankenstein

Frankenstein

Churchill Theatre Bromley

Reviewed – 27th September 2019

★★

“maintains what can only be described as a majestic pace throughout”

Reviewed by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Craig Sugden

Murder, Margaret & Me

Churchill Theatre Bromley until 28th September then UK Tour continues

Last ten shows covered by this reviewer: