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drinks Monday 4 August 08
Genevieve Swallow
in
DULCAS'S WOMEN
Verdict: The remarkable Genevieve Swallow.
Edinburgh - The Pleasance - August 03
DULCAS'S WOMEN is 14 sketches featuring the remarkable Genevieve Swallow, written with wit and guile by Terry Newman, and directed with élan and close-focus by Emma Taylor. Rather sexy voice-overs are from the delightful Tara Hendry, with fine lighting from Rupert Lally.
Swallow's a not-personally-starving peasant in poverty in Obskuristan, a send-up of the Oxfam famine-movie genre. The other end of the financial scale, Hollywood Knives, sees her as a Hollywood star outlining her facial beauty-plan as age ravages. The 12 Stations of New Cross is an out-take from any EastEnders-type soap, focusing on Me-centred reality and the word 'fuck'.
There's a change of mood for A Widow's Weeds. Swallow's on-stage in black - short skirt, jacket, beguiling black hat, smoking a cigarette, fabulously sexy. She's recalling her husband dying of cancer - and why she wasn't dismayed. The Sexual Awakening of a Young Woman has Swallow as a 16 year-old hippy back in the 60s. It parodies the sexual politics and hypocrisy of the era in a way that's funny, but tinged with pathos.
Patricia comes with no warning. It's not funny, it's deadly serious - the confession of a disturbed trailer-trash American woman and the fate of her children. It's the strongest piece by far in a strong bill, and profound, both in the simplicity of its language, and the candour of Swallow's presentation.
Pussy in Boots analyses exactly what happened in the Gore-Bush election, closing with God Bless America. There's a short interval.
For part two, there's a microphone centre stage, and Swallow saunters up to it as Kim Tardy - Stand-Up. Ex-one-half of Sasha and Kim, up for the Perrier Award ('Derriere Award, if you ask me'), she's not bitter that Sasha's fallen in love with Roger, broken up the act, and having a baby. Of course not ('Haven't they heard of contraception?'). In The Carer, Swallow's a woman looking after her decrepit old Uncle Jack.
Swallow delivers a tour-de-force with The Ghost of Radio Rentals. From later in life, she looks back on the teenage day she became a woman - and two prominent assets of her new status, er, support this - and caught her reflection in the window of Radio Rentals.
For His Penis up my Rectum, she switches to a middle-aged middle-class lady, requesting phone advice re her husband's unexpected request. She's a grown-up schoolgirl at The Wedding Reception, grudging the loss of Alan-she-felated to Sandy the Baptist bride. The show closes with a brief return to Obskuristan
Swallow's on top form for a remarkable 90 minutes - which passes quickly - and a costume change for every sketch. In energy alone it would be impressive, but, fine actor that she is, the technicalities of her art are concealed. We see, simply, 13 completely different women, from 16 to 70, of different nationalities, social class, and ambitions. All are uniquely convincing, some are funny, one profoundly distressing. It's a compelling entertainmnent.
Costumes are well-chosen and enhance the production, which is lit with subtlety by Rupert Lally. His choice, for example, of a single and quiet red lamp in Pussy in Boots during the narration, contrasting with a soft cream spot for Swallow's action, underscores her acting to perfection. Tara Hendry's narrative voice complements Swallow's performance delightfully, elegantly disguising her changes of costume, and providing continuity and interplay.
The writing of Terry Newman is known, perhaps anonymously, to millions through his comedy writing as Terry Franks Newman for Rory Bremner, Alistair McGowan, Russ Abbot, and Roy Hudd. Dulcas's Women is an alluring showcase of his dramatic work, varying from the hilarious, to the profound - and each acutely observed.
Emma Taylor is a gifted director, and Dulcas's Women provides her with a wide canvas. It's a complex directorial task, because she has to present a set of characters (played by Swallow) who differ absolutely, in a single show. She needs to convince us that each person is separate, but that there is a unity to the whole. This technical challenge is, again, accomplished invisibly - the discipline concealed beneath the art. Taylor is at one with Swallow, sculpting and focusing her movements to produce a show which is truly remarkable.
Actor - Genevieve Swallow. Narrator's voice - Tara Hendry. Writer - Terry Newman. Director - Emma Taylor. Presented by Canal Café Theatre and IMSATSO.
END
John Park
reviewed Monday 23 September 02 at Canal Café Theatre
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008
