ROUGH MUSIC. to 13 January.
London.
ROUGH MUSIC
by Sylvia Freedman.
King’s Head Theatre 115 Upper Street N1 1QN To 13 January 2008.
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 4.30pm Sun 4pm.
Runs 2hr 10min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 7226 1916.
www.kingsheadtheatre.org
Review: Timothy Ramsden 15 December.
Silent lives given rich and vigorous staging.
Before spray-cans and the days of easy graffiti, rough music was a kind of aural vigilantism, involving banging objects noisily outside the home of anyone who’d offended the local populace. The offence in Sylvia Freedman’s 1890s Lancashire cotton-town is independence among women.
It seems surprising, but Victorian factories were often seen as liberating for women, allowing freedom from tyrannous families and higher wages than domestic service. Yet women were paid less than men, who demarcated their own preserves within the industrial process.
Jessie Sanders, Freedman’s protagonist, is a working-class Lancashire lass who’s determined to break free. Not for her the domesticity offered by a devoted, hard-working lover, nor the happiness her sister Lizzie finds, cradling her baby. Inspired by a comedian-singer in the local pub, Jessie's voice and courage lead to a Music Hall career. Learning the ways of a conniving world, she protects herself by her wit.
Yet it’s a risky life; her story’s revealed as Jessie explains herself in a London courtroom where the male judge convicts women on the slightest suspicion of wrongdoing.
But she’s used to putting on a good show, And she survives because she’s not too unorthodox, unlike her friend Chad, a woman living as a man. A final haunting image has the successful Jessie dancing with her lost friend.
This fresh examination of Victorian working-class women is given a great lift by John Adams’ staging. The King’s Head’s dining-tables are swept away, creating a traverse stage, with a raised platform at one end. Action flows between this self-evident performance area and the traverse.
Shaun Hennessy’s comedian leaps between the two, characters sit on the front audience rows, reacting to the Music Hall moments and creating their own musical underscoring, joining in the songs. The traverse space varies between moments of mayhem and the still conformity while the Sanders menfolk eat their meal (they must get fed-up with mash on matinee days) as the women stand dutifully around.
Bryone Afferson’s spirited Jessie is centre to an accomplished cast. And this is a spirited piece right through, one that’s well worth the journey to Islington.
Judge/Sidney/Pike: Michael Irving.
Grace/Lizzie Sanders/Jane: Clare Fraenkel.
Bridget/Mrs Sanders/Connie/Ellen: Mary Jo Randle.
Policeman/Merryweather/Mr Gibson: Shaun Hennessy.
Mr Sanders/Monticello: Richard Syms.
Jessie Sanders: Bryony Afferson.
Billy Sanders/Wilbert/Fred: Jonathan Ryan.
2nd Policeman/Jack Wilson: Richard Mark.
Chad Haynes: Laura-Kate Gordon.
Director/Musical Arrangements: John Adams.
Designer: Norman Coates.
Lighting: Chris Ellis.
Sound: David Loughran.
Choreographer: Laura Meakin.
Costume: Gary Page.
2007-12-17 09:18:51