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Emma Rice’s Blue Beard is predicated on the French people story a few man whose curious new spouse opens a forbidden door, solely to find all his earlier wives chopped up and hidden behind it. The present is artistically fabulous. Sumptuously wealthy in visible curiosity, it presents a carnivalesque cocktail of music, phantasm and extremely theatrical efficiency. There’s glorious comedy and evocative music. And it provides a searing, vital message of justified feminist rage. Initially, we’re launched to a hilarious convent of girls who carry out comedian ninja strikes as they pronounce themselves as “the fearless, fucked and livid”. They’re…
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A humorous, carnivalesque cocktail of fierce efficiency and excellent music, with a ferocious name to arms to rework our feminist future.
Emma Rice’s Blue Beard is predicated on the French people story a few man whose curious new spouse opens a forbidden door, solely to find all his earlier wives chopped up and hidden behind it. The present is artistically fabulous. Sumptuously wealthy in visible curiosity, it presents a carnivalesque cocktail of music, phantasm and extremely theatrical efficiency. There’s glorious comedy and evocative music. And it provides a searing, vital message of justified feminist rage.
Initially, we’re launched to a hilarious convent of girls who carry out comedian ninja strikes as they pronounce themselves as “the fearless, fucked and livid”. They’re led by their superb Mom Superior (Katy Owen), a diminutive girl sporting a blue beard and delivering cheeky one-liners. It’s signature Rice type. When a misplaced younger man arrives wishing to inform his story, Mom Superior grudgingly permits him to remain, however desires as a substitute to inform him the story of the ladies there.
Weaved into this account of devastating abuse is the Misplaced Boy’s story of a Misplaced Sister. Adam Mirsky and Mirabelle Gremaud painting an on a regular basis sibling relationship; loving, but not with out argument. Considerably, he doesn’t stroll her dwelling.
The solid are merely distinctive. Patrycja Kujawska, Isabel Adomakoh-Younger and Stephanie Hockley specifically don’t put a foot misplaced and are meticulously synchronised as the primary characters. There’s fabulous singing and spectacular physicality all spherical. Gremaud is extraordinary, together with her gorgeous acrobatic routines, additionally enjoying the harp and guitar.
The illusory high quality of male/feminine powerplay is neatly captured in themes of magic, with Tristan Sturrock as Blue Beard appropriately charismatic as a magician, earlier than descending right into a chillingly menacing persona. His magic tips are entertaining and well-executed, significantly the ‘sawing a lady in half’ which speaks in metaphorical volumes.
The costume and set design by Vicki Mortimer is strikingly quirky, vibrant and ingenious, capturing a number of themes, from phantasm to comedy to horror, and wrapping them collectively in a cosmic capsule. Moreover, Stu Barker’s music is attention-grabbing and unique, permitting the actor/musicians to interact as an organization in a method that helps the top message of the present.
It was maybe a troublesome crowd once I attended, pleased to chuckle on the gags however much less eager on the viewers participation, so the actual world and the theatrical felt indifferent. By the interval, though I used to be appreciating the present, I actually wasn’t positive the place it was going: it felt puzzlingly nebulous. Within the second half, though it’s very humorous, it’s somewhat troubling that the ladies tackle ‘masculine’ traits and behaviours to be highly effective. And it’s solely proper on the finish that there’s actual certainty concerning the message, which even then is a jarring match.
That is unquestionably a stunningly executed piece, however the entire looks like two sections grafted collectively. With out giving spoilers, by the point the change is made to a gritty reality (together with use of CCTV type movie, the dropping away of costume and a few significantly spectacular anguish from Owen) the hyper-theatricality has been simply an excessive amount of to let go of; the figures are drenched in characterisation, such that it’s laborious to make the leap to actuality. The ladies we’ve seen have adjectival names, are stylised and their behaviours cartoon relatively than authentically human. Even the Misplaced Sister’s efficiency is choreographed in motion together with her brother, so her closing drama too is tainted by the performative. The leap is a bit too far and the juxtaposition unsatisfactory, regardless of a fiercely sound message.
Nevertheless, this closing name to arms is deeply shifting and the fantastically portrayed relationship of mom and son carry a powerfully shiny hope for a reimagined society sooner or later. I walked away higher for that.
Written and directed by: Emma Rice
Composed by: Stu Barker
Set & Costume Design by: Vicki Mortimer
Sound and Video Design by: Simon Baker
Lighting Design by: Malcolm Rippeth
Choreography by: Etta Murfitt
Produced by: Smart Kids
Blue Beard runs at Battersea Arts Centre till Saturday 18 Might. Additional data and bookings might be discovered right here.
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