BLUEBEARD. To 9 June.
London
BLUEBEARD
by Pericles Snowdon
Old Red Lion 418 St John Street EC1V 4NJ To 9 June 2007
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Sun 6pm
Runs 2hr One interval
TICKETS: 020 7837 7816
www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 3 June
Women take over the castle and redefine the conflict.
Pericles Snowdon has created a futuristic group of girls in a closed-off society in his new play for fluff productions. Their situation unfolds gradually, answering questions which have had just long enough to tantalise; Snowdon has a strong sense of dramatic pacing.
But his ultimate answer to what lies outside the multi-locked door in a nearish future, when the 2012 Olympics have become a quite distant memory – whether it’s the normal world from which sick matriarch Blue is trying to protect the younger women, or whether, as she claims, the outside world has become a waste - stays in the balance till the last minutes.
By then the reason for their all being gathered in what is either a castle or church has been made evident. If the outcome’s less interesting than the preceding guesswork, that’s fiction. This is an individual tale, intriguingly told. Bluebeard is no more than an inn-sign, but the links that follow from that inn lead directly to this enclosed community with its rituals and attempts to redefine both individual and social identities by remaking history through strong female role-models, and the emergent new vocabulary sprinkled through the action.
There’s something creepily familiar about the girls’ boarding-school tone in which these girls live, and their animal names (explained along the way), along with the born prefect-type, Miss King. Then there’s the perennial generation process. Blue, this mini-society’s founder, is fading, and in their own ways Rooster, Monkey and Piglet are spreading their wings in line with their emerging characters.
Then the challenger arrives; quietly composed, demurely white-clad but persistent Mignon, heading to an inevitable clash with Blue, with its far from inevitable outcome. Annie Julian suggests Blue’s present sickness more than her past strength (still present, if in decline); Rebecca Dunn’s Mignon is a calmly assertive presence that remains locked in its own mystery. There are fine, fizzing performances from Sara Templeman, Clare Fraenkel and Emily North and a contrastingly serene one from Chloe Metcalfe, as the locked-in generation.
Director Dominic Colenso gives these characters space to grow in his well-paced production of this intriguing play.
Monkey: Sara Templeman
Rooster: Clare Fraenkel
Piglet: Emily North
Miss King: Chloe Metcalfe
Blue: Annie Julian
Mignon: Rebecca Dunn
Director: Dominic Colenso
Designer: Tamsin James
Lighting: Sarah Jane Shiels
Composer: Alison Beckett
Fight director: Marcello Marascalchi
2007-06-06 08:44:33