THE LADIES' CAGE. To 14 April.
London/Manchester
THE LADIES’ CAGE
by Maureen McManus
Finborough Theatre Finborough Pub 118 Finborough Road SW10 9ED To 14 April
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Sun 3.30pm
then Royal Exchange Studio Manchester 27-28 April 2007
Fri 7.30pm Sat 8pm
Runs 2hr 5min One interval
TICKETS: 0870 4000 838 (24hr)
www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk (reduced full-price tickets online London)
0161 833 9833
www.royalexchange.co.uk/bookonline (Manchester)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 1 April
1880s female struggle in Ireland reclaimed from the bog of history.
Charles Stewart Parnell, dashing champion of Irish home-rule, beloved of ladies and brought down by his liaison with one of them, had two sisters. Franny went to America but Anna - Maureen McManus’ principal subject - stayed to give her brother secretarial help.
Anna knew how much Charles needed such assistance and used it to bargain with him to add women’s rights to his nationalist demands. With like-minded female associates she formed the Ladies Land League, parallel body to the male organisation
The Protestant Parnell and Catholic Michael Davitt formed their Land League to protect poor tenant farmers and give them eventual independence from British landlords. And landladies; McManus’ example of an evicting owner shows class, as well as sex, dividing society.
Parnell’s easier alliance with Davitt than acceptance of his sister’s activity shows the same mindset that has led to Anna’s eclipse in history. The brother shows an emotional repression paralleling the Irish Constabulary’s physically vicious eviction of women tenants.
Meanwhile, the aim of forcing lower rents through organised non-payment displays a powerful sense of achievable aims; and Anna is less open to compromise than her brother.
Nathan Rimell’s peacock-proud Parnell, commanding in manner and voice contrasts the quiet, intelligent assertiveness of Lucianne McEvoy’s Anna. McEvoy’s performance emerges from the ensemble, which separates into 3 male actors, Parnell and bullying officialdom (only Colm Gormley’s Fenian Davitt suggests someone more complex), and 4 female, suffering tenantry or organised women.
Yet within the Ladies’ Land League tensions and differences boil up. And they think up the legal sleight-of-hand that hits back when Parnell, losing interest in land reform in favour of Home Rule, deliberately bankrupts his sister’s organisation.
The Ladies’ Cage, a screen keeping women observers apart in the House of Commons, stands for their suppression in politics, society and history. Cleo Pettitt’s overarching wooden structure aptly encloses characters between 2 banks of audience, towering over them officiously.
McManus gives new life to some very lively women, re-assessing stereotypes of the 19th-century female role. John Terry’s lively production and a good cast with McEvoy quietly formidable make for an individual, engrossing 2 hours.
Margaret/Kate Malony: Karren Winchester
Bridget/Jenny O’Toole: Tracy Kearney
Franny Parnell/Prosecution Lawyer/Katherine Tynan: Rebecca Morden
Anna Parnell: Lucianne McEvoy
Charles Stewart Parnell/Major Lloyd: Nathan Rimell
Process Server/Michael Davitt/RIC Man/Henry George: Colm Gormley
Judge/John Dillon/RIC man: Jamie Belton
Director: John Terry
Designer: Cleo Pettitt
Lighting/Sound: Danny Searle
Musical Director: Tyrone Landau
Costume: Mia Flodquist
Voice coach: Richard Ryder
Fight director: Haruka Kuroda
Assistant director: Alex Summers
2007-04-02 11:45:27