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Post by showgirl on Jul 20, 2018 18:49:30 GMT
This is the new play from Charlotte (Humble Boy) Jones, summarised on the website as follows:
"Rachel has been the voice for her deaf mother since she was born, but now she is restless to be heard for herself. Together, they have found sanctuary in a Quaker community that reveres silence. But the world is at war and it is becoming ever harder to live in Friendship. When a stranger arrives in their midst, their fragile peace is set to shatter."
I saw it last night (PN) and though I had no idea what to expect, it's not the dull, sober subject you might think, or at least, the writer's way of exploring multiple themes certainly isn't; I found it absolutely riveting though so nerve-wracking in places that I was almost scared to continue watching for fear of what might happen.
Great cast, set and direction; a standing ovation from many present and all the reviews I have seen so far have been 3 or 4 stars. I had the sense of seeing what should become a modern classic - not flawless but intense, layered, thought-provoking and offering almost too much to take in on one visit. Perhaps inevitably it reminded me greatly of The Crucible, as though this is set in a different continent and over 100 years later, it addresses the same themes of grappling with conscience, struggling to adhere to a chosen faith, making personal sacrifices for the greater good and so on.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 21, 2018 7:17:01 GMT
This sounds interesting. I am embarrassed to admit that I have not seen a Charlotte Jones play before. Do you think it will come to London. From what you say it might be worth a visit to Chichester.
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Post by showgirl on Jul 21, 2018 8:10:54 GMT
Hard to predict what may transfer and in the case of Pressure, it took a couple of years (though that's unusual), so more like an early revival in that case. It also depends on your taste and the travel, etc - for me it's worth doing the double and I combined this with a matinee in the main house. A long day and trains are uncertain but cheaper than 2 trips or an overnight stay. If you haven't already, maybe read all the reviews and wait to see if anyone else here endorses my enthusiasm?
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Post by peelee on Jul 23, 2018 16:59:22 GMT
Reading reviews this morning, I am tempted to travel some distance to see this play at the Minerva, Chichester.
That said, I hope that it tours and comes into somewhere in London where tickets and seats amount to a good deal and could be acquired without difficulty.
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Post by smallperson on Jul 28, 2018 20:37:27 GMT
Back from our annual trip to Chichester to see friends and a play. For the stats there were 6 of us: me and 3 out of 4 offspring plus local friend and one of hers. Background research: I saw Humble Boy at the National in 2001 (might regret posting on this Board and finding stuff I did yesterday was 17 years ago) and The Lightening Play at the Almeida in 2006 (early Mike Attenborough days?). So 12 years since I last saw a Charlotte Jones play. I like the Minerva – generally more enjoyable space than the Festival Theatre which always makes me think of snooker at the Crucible which is odd as I have only ever been there in spirit on the TV.
The play is to some extent a faithful literal representation of a time in England in the Napoleonic Wars and of a space in a small Quaker community on the outskirts of town and, in many ways, reality. Lydia Leonard’s Rachel was not born into the faith and for a whole host of reasons – a lot related to being brought up signing for her deaf mother – she has an overwhelming desire to articulate in meetings questions about the life that the community lives and how effective passive resistance to war can ever be. She wants to engage in debate with her own community and even more troubling for them with “the town”. This is not well received! Themes of damage – Rachel but also the young deserter she befriends and latterly some surprising members of the religious community – pervade. The main characters all come with a veritable pantechnicon (sp?) of baggage. The play ends up being a combination of issue-based exposition and personal stories but is none the worse for that.
The final meeting that we see has an astonishing performance by one of the actors which is at first horribly painful and ultimately uplifting and addresses many of the issues Rachel had tried earlier to get the group and in particular her husband to confront.
The sparse set cleverly changes from meeting house, to family home to seashore and graveyard with a few pieces of furniture spirited out from under the stage and/or conjured up by sound and lighting design which as they should be are cleverly almost imperceptible. And lots of stones ……. metaphors here I am sure.
Two of the youngsters (one of mine/one of hers) thought there were too many plot twists in Act 2 but I thought a lot of what happens in Act 2 was signposted – in a good way – in Act 1. On a final personal note, we agreed on the train on the way back that if I continue to post here we need to see more things where I don’t start the discussion with “I remember when …..” Star rating across the 6 of us = 21*
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Post by showgirl on Jul 30, 2018 3:53:17 GMT
I'm glad someone else here has seen this though sorry it doesn't appear to have been to the taste of everyone in the group but did you actually enjoy it and think it worth seeing, smallperson? I don't know if I'm being dense but I can't actually tell from what you've said. As well as wanting people to like it, I'm wary of over-rating it only for others to be disappointed. Always a risk but with some productions there are more comments to weigh up, whereas so far unusually few for this one. |
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Post by foxa on Jul 30, 2018 8:18:27 GMT
I haven't seen this, but from what I hear it sounds interesting. Seems a good time for Jones with the Orange Tree having recently revived 'Humble Boy' as well.
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Post by smallperson on Jul 30, 2018 12:08:53 GMT
I'm glad someone else here has seen this though sorry it doesn't appear to have been to the taste of everyone in the group but did you actually enjoy it and think it worth seeing, smallperson ? I don't know if I'm being dense but I can't actually tell from what you've said. As well as wanting people to like it, I'm wary of over-rating it only for others to be disappointed. Always a risk but with some productions there are more comments to weigh up, whereas so far unusually few for this one. I enjoyed it! Sorry the group view expressed earlier was a bit of a composite of everyone's views which were all generally positive but some more so than others! I thought it was a well-written play dealing with some "political" themes (e.g. Is passive resistance the right way to confront negative reactions to war? To what extent can you properly describe a group as a community if you exclude those who may not immediately fit in?) and also taking some believable characters with all their flaws and looking at what reactions to those flaws say about the characters and about ourselves. The mother (and the actress Jean St Clair) who is deaf is a case in point. Lydia Leonard holds the centre of the play together with a very strong performance. Gerald Kyd as her husband does "conflicted male" well and Olivia Darnley as the somewhat irritating busybody jerks you into reality with what lies beneath her superficial jollity. As mentioned before the set is clever and allows the action to clip along nicely with sound and lighting used to move us from location to location. I was not terribly sure about the 1970s lampshade effect above the set which was lowered from time to time and on which chairs were popped away - especially as I thought one of the taller actors was at risk of a nasty clout from it at one point. Hope that helps a bit more for those who have not seen it. My star rating out of the collective number was 4*. |
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Post by showgirl on Jul 31, 2018 3:22:55 GMT
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Post by bramble on Aug 10, 2018 10:28:09 GMT
An excellent production of a gripping story. Very well acted.
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