Plays that make you go Hmmm!!

The Changling A Jacobean Epic at The Lowry

I read a review in my local paper about a Jacobean Revenge drama written in 1622 by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley. It is sexually explicit as well as violent and mixes the two with tragic effect.

Set in Roman Catholic Spain, the play centres around a love triangle. The aristocratic Beatrice-Joanna is in Love with Alsemero, but her controlling father wishes her to marry well to Alsono de Piracquo. DeFlores (the deflowerer) is in love with his Masters daughter who is reviled by his scars and deformity.

Hardly surprising then that this love sick man servant will do anything to help out Beatrice and murders her future husband. She tries to pay him in gold and rid him from the court, but DeFlores decides he will take his payment in kind. 

Initially she finds her predicament intolerable, until Deflores murders again for her and she realises this man is the love of her life, because he will do anything to protect her and their secret. Needless to say her newly wedded hubby Alsemero grows suspicious and challenges them both with quite horrific consequences.... I was sat near the front of the stage and I thought I was to be sprayed with blood when Beatrice gave her dramatic dying speech before flopping dead onto the boards!

I won't give everything away as I think it should be something that every discerning theatre boff should see at some point in their lives. I can see why critics hail it as the greatest tragedy in English Theatre since Shakespeare. Personally I just wanted to see how how explicit the sex scenes were!!!

Someone Who Will Watch Over Me - Manchester Library Theatre

This was an incredibly thought provoking play about three men, one English, one Irish and an American who had been kidnapped and held captive in Beirut by terrorists. The stage set was nothing but a cell and all three were chained to the walls and sat on nothing but a grubby mat as they attempted to come to terms with their predicament.

At first the Irish character tried to deal with the situation through humour, whilst the American found solace in the bible and the most recently captured hostage, the Englishman, lived in denial that there had been a huge mistake and they had the wrong man!

I sat in the audience, with an uncomfortable feeling of laughing at some of the jokes in such awkward and difficult circumstances and I'm sure I wasn't the only person there thinking "How would I cope in such a situation?" I asked myself that question so often afterwards that I finally wrote a book searching for a protaganist who could deal with abduction, hostage and rehabilitation of of such horrifying experiences. The Betrayal will be published soon...

The play however did have it's surreal moments as the three men embarked on an imaginary journey flying through the air, free as bird, chitty chitty bang bang kinda moment... Twas odd! But the final part was very difficult to deal with, as one is executed, another freed and the third left all alone in the cell wondering what will happen to him. Despite the seriousness of the play I have to say it is still one of the best I have ever seen.