Duplicity Girls, at the White Bear February 21, 2010
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Reviews , add a commentA woman comes home through the Canadian snow. Her sister is waiting, wanting to know where she’s been. At the start, its almost irritating. The one who has been out makes Martinis for them both, trying to make her sister choose between an olive and an onion then undermining her choice, pushing her back in the other direction with ‘giddy banter’. Is the housebound sister ill, perhaps some sort of dementia? Is it really something to laugh at? Some people find it funny but I feel uncomfortable.
Paula Costain and Johanna Nutter as the two women present an hour of very disturbing theatre. They talk, intensely and claustrophobically, and argue like children, tormenting each other until its hard to know what is real or if they even alive. Even the half-expected denouement left me unsure.
Duplicity Girls is on transfer from Montreal, and only has one more date in London, at the White Bear on 22 Feb. It’s well worth seeing.
Madness in Valencia, Lope de Vega February 10, 2010
Posted by cathrynsymons in : Reviews , add a commentLove drives people insane, and Valencia is famous for its madhouse. A transfer from the White Bear by Black and White Rainbow, this bawdy comedy of errors by the 16th century Spanish playwright Lope de Vega now playing at Trafalgar Studios is the funniest thing I’ve seen in ages.
As we came in, a writer is scribbling away on the floor, and the play begins with the parts being handed out to the players who study their lines. We are occasionally drawn in to the making of the play, a device which works well in the intimate space with a stage that may be even smaller than the White Bear’s. This isn’t a play where you’re in any danger of being forced to interact, but the audience is certainly part of the performance.
Then we’re off at a gallop. Floriano kills a prince and flees to his friend Valerio, who hides him in the local asylum. Meanwhile Erifila has eloped with her servant, Leonato, who steals her jewelry and abandons her to be found by Pisano, psychiatrist at the asylum, and taken there as a patient. Fedra, niece of Sancho, the asylum owner, falls in love with Floriano as does her maid, Laida. Valerio falls in love with Erifila, who also falls in love with Floriano. Floriano falls in love with Erifila, while being terrified of being caught for murder. I hope you’ve got all that.
The romp that ensues is a glorious farce, as the talented cast weave through misunderstanding and intrigue to an apparently unsatisfying ending, which is resolved in a way that had the entire theatre in stitches.
By the way, make sure you go back early in the interval to see the fragile fourth wall tumble as Laurence Piller’s leery psychiatrist Pisano, his own wits more than a little touched, ad-libs to the audience, seeking out tips for treatments and borrowing drinks.
Madness in Valencia plays at Trafalgar Studios 2 until 6 March, tickets 22.50. Seat D4 was okay, but the first and second seats in any row would have a fairly restricted view, as would the last two. Best to get the centre block if you can, but make sure you see it.
