THEATRE Review of London’s Theatre Productions by Lydia Parker It was a sad occasion when theatres closed their doors due to the pandemic, but a sound decision. As a theatre maker myself, I’ve found it a trying time, wondering when and if I’d ever have a career again in live performance. We can but hope that all artists are continuing to thrive, create and produce work ready for the safe re-opening of venues or for online viewing. Luckily there is much to watch online, catching up with filmed live streams of performances we’d meant to watch but missed; I was thrilled to see Complicité’s The Encounter on the Barbican website and The Barbershop Chronicles by Inua Ellams on the National Theatre at Home. They broadcast a new play each week for free, asking those who can to donate. As I write this they are showing The Donmar Warehouse production of Coriolanus with Tom Hiddleston. www. nationaltheatre.org.uk/nt-at-home. The RSC has been broadcasting free Shakespeare on BBC Radio 4 www.rsc.org.uk.
Luckily there is much to watch online, catching up with filmed live streams of performances we’d meant to watch but missed The Globe Theatre has its own pay per view channel online: for £5.99 you can choose one of seventy three productions of primarily Shakespeare, both homegrown and from other countries such as Japan, Georgia, and Lithuania on Globe Player TV www.globeplayer.tv. For those expats missing American performing arts, Lincoln Center at Home is offering a wide variety of productions ranging from concerts to opera to musicals www.lincolncenter.org/lincoln-center-at-home. 24
AMERICAN IN BRITAIN
Wasted
I decided for this issue to have a look at a couple of productions off the beaten path which are streaming for free throughout the summer. The first is Wasted, a musical about the Brontes with music by Christopher Ash and book and lyrics by Carl Miller, presented by Southwark Playhouse. Although the driving beat of the music is at first jarring as an anachronism, you soon see the brilliance of pairing contemporary music with the passionate desperation of this brilliant family. The story is told with no set, the performers communicating mostly through microphones straight out to the audience. With one slamming song after another , we learn about their early life in Haworth, a poor town in Yorkshire where they all felt out of place. Branwell, the only son, is the least talented but believes himself a bit of genius, although he can’t settle on whether he is an artist, musician or poet, and can’t seem to finish anything he starts. He hopes his sisters will marry well as it is obvious he cannot support them. Charlotte gets frequent proposals from Mr Smith, the local curate, but refuses him each time as she wants to be free to write. Anne plaintively sings the folk like song “No One to Marry”; she has dreams of happiness but despairs of finding anyone suitable in their isolated little town. Emily, meanwhile, declares her dog Keeper is her soulmate, as she sings “Only pup’s prepared to put up with my monologue in a bog”. Her musical homage to her dog as she runs off to the moors is probably intentionally reminiscent of Kate Bush. The Brontes are unlucky in love. Branwell has an affair with Lydia Robinson, the mother of one his pupils. Charlotte falls in love with the husband of her employer in Brussels at a boarding school. She is heartbroken but is the driving force in getting the sisters’ poems published, which don’t sell, and eventually their novels, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey, which become best sellers. Unfortunately tragedy follows triumph as Branwell becomes addicted to laudanum and all the siblings, except Charlotte, succumb to illness. The music ranges in style from rock to folk to rap and the numbers are sung beautifully by the strong cast who have a huge vocal range. One of the standouts is Ordinary Woman, where Charlotte describes her main character in Jane
Eyre, touching because she is so similar to her creation. Natasha J Barnes portrays her as the solid centre of the family, with an extraordinary voice that can belt out a rock solo or glide through a ballad. She could have a career as a recording artist. Matthew Jacobs Morgan as Branwell shines in all of his songs, particularly “I Paint Myself In”, sung towards the end of the play and his life, recognising that he has never amounted to anything. He gives a real pathos to this character, a man who felt he should be the best at everything as he was the only man in the family, and yet knew he didn’t have his sisters’ talent. Siobhan Atwell is outstanding as Emily, a “goth before my time”. She creates a huge, larger than life wild woman who cannot be contained, has no social skills and is fiercely private about her writing. Molly Lynch is excellent as Anne Brontë, the quiet, religious one who regrets never being held in passion. Her character is given the least attention by the writers, probably as she was not very exciting in real life, but Miss Lynch storms through the songs with as much aplomb as her fellow cast members. Wasted, like Hamilton, makes historical characters relevant and relatable through new music. Expertly directed by Adam Lenson, it offers the audience a fresh and exciting way to look at familiar stories. Hopefully, this filmed version will inspire producers to transfer this production eventually to the West End and a wider audience. There is some strong language but this could also be a riveting and entertaining history lesson for teenagers and their parents. Wasted will be streamed throughout the summer. www.southwarkplayhouse. co.uk/archive-2018/wasted/
Wasted, like Hamilton, makes historical characters relevant and relatable through new music
