A DULDITCH ANGEL. To 26 November.

Tour

A DULDITCH ANGEL
by Steven Canny

Eastern Angles Tour to 26 November 2005
Runs 2hr 15min One interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 23 November at Upstairs at the Gatehouse, Highgate

Local company rediscovers lost local author.
In the 1980s Tory MP Matthew Parris tried to prove state benefits were sufficient by living at their level for a week; he failed. In the 1890s rural Norfolk of Mary Mann’s stories a head-in-air Rector attempts something similar with his family when challenged over the weekly agricultural labour wage of 11 shillings (55p). He fails too, discovering also how different backbreaking work is when you’re actually doing it.

This story illustrates both Mann’s realistic view of village life and her social concerns, which extended to such matters as healthy eating. Her writings are brought to life in Steven Canny’s adaptation for Eastern Angles, visiting London near the end of a 2-month East Anglian tour.

Mann’s Rector preaches about God’s order but can’t even keep his study tidy, calling on female relative Hannah to help. She arrives (a selfless, though not faceless, narrator role by Rachael Spence) in a world only less strange than that found at Bly by The Turn of the Screw’s Governess.

Canny’s version, in Orla O’Loughlin’s production, is too frequently theatrically knowing, leaving some moments without the hijinks a mite flat. But it’s ingenious and energetic, in a show including Claire Vousden’s multiple cameos, sharp-edged portrayals instantly invoking a life, and Gareth Hinsley’s distinctions between unworldly cleric, upright gamekeeper and indecipherable local unworthy.

Characters are never patronised, while puppets are imaginatively used for the rectory baby and child: a soft-fabric, blank-faced being made highly expressive through anglings of the face or arm movements. And Patrick Knox ensures Angel, the lonely widower searching out a companion for the evenings, retains his dignity as the village’s most unaccepted suitor, Knox’s face becoming progressively cleaner as his search continues.

But the title Angel is Mary, hired from the other end of the world (a village 5 miles away), a forceful young woman with strong maternal instincts, whose resolute qualities outdo her employer’s attempt to dismiss her, becoming an angel entertained unawares. Imogen Church understands her thoroughly as frank yet self-contained, loyal but independent, her movements practical if inelegant, in a splendid performance which is the heart of this show.

Mary: Imogen Church
Rector/Teddy Pyement/Tom Wapple/Cutty Twiss/Lorry Alton/Ivan Castle/Gentleman George: Gareth Hinsley
Angel: Patrick Knox
Hannah: Rachael Spence
Rector’s Wife/Rose/Mrs Angel/Caroline Jaggerd/Dinah Brome/Elly Pitcher/Nancie Lawrence/Becky Quelch/Amelia Sprite/Mary Rackham/Nanna Tabb: Claire Vousden

Director: Orla O’Loughlin
Designer: James Humphrey
Lighting: Fiona Simpson
Puppetry: Mark Down
Assistant director: Dan Barnard

2005-11-24 15:26:53