MULGRAVE. To 3 July.
Sandsend
MULGRAVE
by Amanda Dalton
Mulgrave Woods To 3 July 2005
Tue-Sun 7pm Mat Sun 1pm
Runs 2hr 55min One interval (sort-of)
TICKETS: 01723 383637
Review: Timothy Ramsden 24 June
Rich history and theatrical expression but limited exploration of a wide theme.The Wilson + Wilson Company build their productions round specific places. Mulgrave, a wooded estate near Whitby, mixes wild terrain with Enlightenment attempts to improve' it (Arcadian overtones here). The estate's history includes fascinating episodes involving a visiting Punjabi prince. Yet the piece makes only a limited exploration of the contrast between nature and human intervention, or the wild and rational elements in mankind.
It recalls a similar venture which Harrogate Theatre in Education produced around the combined National Trust properties of North Yorkshire's medieval Fountains Abbey and 18th century Studley Royal estates several years ago. Though this is a more arduous perambulation. Electric buggies to take the 40 audience members some distance but they're for the irrelevant bits, not the tough ones.
Uneven, knee-threatening steps mount to a ruined castle - though the climb's surrounded by a sit-down lecture before, a tea-and-biscuit pseudo-interval at the top. And it's nothing to a descent down uneven, slippery, steps. Any more of this and the Wilsons will need to prepare audiences with SAS assault-course training.
Yet the climb-down gives way to a sudden vista, the ruins replaced by a splendidly illuminated mansion one side and a prospect of the North Sea the other. Here, between stately home and ocean, a Punjabi maharajah goes native in North Yorkshire.
Then there's the carriage bringing an 18th century nabob and explorer-worthies to the estate, and the maharajah's elephant (which caused the first Whitby-Sandsend road to be built). And the contrast between our polite initial guide and the wild woodsman we keep meeting. The theme of man-made artificiality runs alongside a developing legend of wild creatures. By the end these combine as a young man already glimpsed amid silent river-walking splashes into the sea while sweet harmonies are sung behind us.
Our Natural History Society guide's explanatory Morningside-in-exile tones contrast glimpsed images and sounds. There's a lot to take in - arrows planted everywhere near the end (hunting's been associated with gunshots and rifles till then) puzzled me. An intriguing experience, despite a final suspicion the ideas add up to less than the production's expressive ingenuity.
Mrs Clough/Lady Normanby: Sally Armstrong
Singer: Sam Dunkley
Omai/Jindan Kaur: Juliet Ellis
Hake/Duleep Singh: Asif Khan
Scary Woodsman/Captain Phipps: Martin Pirongs
Gull/Victorian Girl: Cerianne Roberts
Joseph Banks/Humphry Repton/Head Woodsman/Phelps: Deka Walmsley
Community Performers: Brian Butcher, Ambithia Firth, Mark Firth, Sheila Firth, Marc Antony Gross, Rebecca Gross, Violet Gross, Nik Harty, Susan Harty, Meg Hodgson, Robin Hodgson, Buster the Horse, Emma Muscroft, Gabriella Rankin, Sarah Skidmore, Cecilia Tuvo, Susan Walker, Becky Walker, Cath Whippey, Margaret Whitworth
Conceived by Louise Ann Wilson, Wils Wilson
Music: Hugh Nankivell
Musical Director: Sam Dunkley
2005-06-28 15:18:01