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| Edinburgh : A&E : Theatre: Reviews |
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Theatre listings > Three Women Three beguiling characters Sylvia Plath's Three Women is a powerful and moving poem about pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood. In this theatrical staging, we are led through subterranean corridors into the appropriately womb-like underbelly of the Arches. The installation begins in the last of these corridors, most hospital-like in its rubber flooring. Through portals in the doors along the corridor, four rooms can be viewed. These include a waiting room and a delivery room, decked out with half-mannequins and bloody surgical instruments, suspended from the supports for the incomplete roofing-tiles of what are normally rehearsal and meeting rooms. This is either a subtle reference to the under-funding of hospital buildings, or a reflection of the Arches' immodesty over its lack of available money for what goes on behind the scenes. Oh well, at least they have nice panelling in the bar. Once you have passed all this, and been passed in turn by an old man in pyjamas (just in case you haven't got the idea that you're in a hospital), you enter the performance space. Here, you are met by three cocoons of cane and cotton, in which three live figures move fluidly, like unborn . . . well, fully-grown adults, really. Neil Armstrong, eat your heart out. The device would work well in a large space, where the audience is distanced from the stage, but this space is small and intimate. Behind the cocoons is a white back-drop, on which plays the silhouette of an indiscreet violinist. Again, the space doesn't lend itself to this design feature. However, three beguiling characters emerge from the 'wombs', to deliver
their respective reflections on the themes, and the poetic delivery is
as good as an ideal childbirth. The poem was intended to be read aloud,
and the performers Claire Cochrane, Sharon Erskine and Hester Musson do
great justice to this theory. I am not convinced by the violin accompaniment,
and suspect that any music would serve only as a distraction from poetry
which is already very musical, not to say dense and demanding. The company
plans to tour its production, and with luck, they will find more appropriate
spaces where the design will come to life, and enhance the performance.
Theatre listings >>
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