(Rated 3.5/5 )
I have been to the Royal Court before but never to the extraordinarily intimate space of the ‘Jerwood Theatre Upstairs’. The audience waited up to maybe 10 minutes beforehand on a staircase and a tiny corridor, before the usher took down the barrier to another few staircases heading upwards and into… The Woods! The floor of the stage covered in wood-shavings and small sticks of wood, with a little hut-like structure in the middle.
I have been to the Royal Court before but never to the extraordinarily intimate space of the ‘Jerwood Theatre Upstairs’. The audience waited up to maybe 10 minutes beforehand on a staircase and a tiny corridor, before the usher took down the barrier to another few staircases heading upwards and into… The Woods! The floor of the stage covered in wood-shavings and small sticks of wood, with a little hut-like structure in the middle.
‘If you go down to the woods today, you’re in for a big
surprise…’ because you are one of just a relatively tiny number of audience
members – far more up close and personal with the actors than even at the
Donmar – and you get to choose your seat. Slightly amusingly my friend chose
where she thought we’d be less in the action sitting by a tree, but it wound up
being the focus of much of the action and exits and entrances ;)
Yep I admit I was drawn to this one for Lesley Sharp, who
played ‘Woman’. She did not remotely disappoint – exceptional performance of
what was clearly some sort of psychological trauma/mental health issue with a
performance involving several different accents and suffering painful depths of
emotion. Yes that part was clear. What was not clear was why and what was the
reality of her situation. Having deliberately wanted to avoid any spoilers I
did not read much at all about this play and afterwards felt pretty stupid for
not getting it. I suppose you could argue you can chose to get whatever you
want from it. But I have my mother’s tendency to want to understand – not just
what is going on but ‘what they are trying to tell us’ as she would have said.
Robert Alan Evans’s script is jam packed with impressive metaphors and little
snippets of scenes, interrupted by complete darkness – allowing the actors to
move to the next one. But it is so nebulous that you don’t ‘get it’ til very
close to the end - if at all. However, that said, it is arguably therefore very
clever - perhaps ‘too clever’ hence turning some members of its audience off –
because that is exactly the main problem with its subject matter – that of
depression! It has no clarity and the sufferer drowns in clouds of non-feeling
or confused feelings so that reality and fantasy become blurred. I realise as I
write this I’m kind of arguing with my own opinion on this piece! I left the theatre
feeling annoyed by my lack of comprehension, but having slept on it – and cheated
by finding out what others made of what in the heck ;) was going on - I find it
impressive. More on that in a little while…
This play has a ‘big bad wolf’ – very characterfully played
by Tom Mothersdale – who presents himself to Woman torturing her in a number of
guises – a wolf in sheep’s and many others’ clothings! Woman tries to run and
hide from him whilst being drawn to some of his challenges for her. There’s attraction
and repulsion going on. Meanwhile she tries to save a boy – Finn Bennett – whom
she found in the woods after a storm. Desperately she tries to keep him safe
and warm… but he is always cold…
One thing I did feel I ‘got’ was that Woman had been abused
in some way – one scene at least hints at this with indications that she was
sexually abused in a playground by Kid – Charles Furness – and his friends. Of
course she was also apparently abused by Wolf and his wonderfully whacky roles.
(Can’t resist also pointing out how similar Wolf’s tracksuit is to Uma Thurman’s
character’s in ‘Kill Bill’ – he is also on a destructive mission.) So my sense
is Woman – as a result – is suffering from split personality or multiple
personality disorder.
Lesley magnificent. Tom a very able antagonist. Production
and space superb. Accomplished direction by Lucy Morrison. Script very good but
not great… though I’m changing my mind as I write this lol!
P.S. Okay spoiler alert coming up… please avoid the next/final
sentence in smaller, lighter-coloured font, and some rows below, if you want to remain as
confused as I was and see I you are cleverer than me by going to watch and
sussing out…
Woman is in fact suffering from post-partem depression.
The Woods – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2018
