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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Bluebeard's Wives
Verdict: Dark myth's subtle new interpretation
Edinburgh - C Venues - August 03
Production Company - SPID
Bluebeard's a giant with a castle. When he seeks a new wife from the village, she's warned he's killed the others. Bluebeard allows her free run of his domain - except one room. He goes away, she enters the room, and there she finds ...
In the traditional telling of the story, it's dead wives. In SPID's new version, it's a lot more subtle.
SPID's staging is essentially a one-woman show, with Faith Hagerty as new wife Sarah on-stage for the full 65 minutes. The first half to two-thirds of this is a monologue from her character about her thoughts on Bluebeard, marriage, and her feelings. Interesting as these may be, the extended monologue as a form can have the disadvantage of potential boredom, which its content has to fight hard to overcome. Faith Hagerty's highly engaging performance triumphs.
In the last segment, the action speeds up, as Sarah is joined by the other wives. The set swings into action (superb design) and the drama intensifies. There's a powerful and unexpected subtlety to the resolution, and an ending that's both charming and optimistic.
SPID's Bluebeard's Wives is a shockingly dramatic evocation of one of the darkest myths from childhood - a fairy-tale seldom told at bed-time. Powerful staging, the searing power of Helena Thompson's haunting script, Rachel Grunwald's gifted and quirky direction, inspired video work, Faith Hagerty's literally enchanting performance, a sand-bleeding set that seems to live and ache, combine to produce a world teetering dangerously on the fulcrum of madness. A crazed theatrical delight.
Credits Faith Hagerty (Sarah, and all video performances); Shaun Aston (voice of Bluebeard). Helena Thompson - Writer. Rachel Grunwald - Director. Yael Luttwak - Producer. Duncan Wood - Technical Director. Loucille Acevado-Jones - Costume Designer. Nima Tehranchi - Production Manager. Samantha Bell - Choreographer. Odelia Lavie - Set Designer and Graphic Artist. Tony Williams - Lighting Designer. Marc Shearer - Original Music and Sound Design. Daniel Wilson - Video. David William Palmer - Stage Manager. David Russell - PR. Company - SPID (Specially Produced Independent Directed).
Acknowledgements: Piece of Cake, Javier Mitres Valdes, Anne Fortin, Christine, William Shanks, Henrietta Bannister, Hampstead Synagogue, Thompson Towers, ICA.
END
John Park
reviewed 11 June 03 / Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA)
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
