'Tis
Pity She's a Whore
- touring
Playwright - John Ford
Director/ Designer - Graham McLaren
Company - theatre babel www.theatrebabel.co.uk
Dates - Started Citizens Theatre Glasgow 19 -28 April
not Sun or Mon at 7:30pm 0141 429 0022 £8/£4 then tours
England, Scotland. Ireland and Channel Islands until 9 June 2001
Performance time 2 hours including interval.
Reviewer -Thelma Good
theatre babel have
taken John Ford's Jacobean tragedy, published in 1633, stripped out
the sub-plots and let us concentrate on the play's centre. And a troubling
centre it is, where love in many different and disturbing aspects drive
the thrusts of the play. Timeless in the questions it raises - who and
why one should love, our present medical advances in conception mean
consanguinity (making out with a relative) is more of an "burning"
issue than ever.
In a cast of seven, Frances Thorburn in her first professional
engagement gives us a wonderfully moving Annabella who holds a strange
purity in spite of her actions. In the demanding role of Giovanni, Kevin
Lennon on the first night, had yet to find all of white hot confidence
fuelled by desire which drives Annabella's loving brother but I think
he will. John Kazek, as Annabella's suitor Soranzo, a man with
a spurned lover and a scheming servant, gives him a sensually flawed
integrity which heightens the tragedy. And all the cast play their characters
so that though the action is set in Jacobean times the humans we see
are those who now weep on our shoulders, deceive us and desire our children.
It's set on a stark stage with two Jacobean gilt chairs. Dramatic lighting,
sound and costuming all strengthen the power of the play. Similarly
the action is clear and concentrated with stylised direction which does
much to underline the play's relevance now. Though I am not sure why
all the male heads were shaved - for a bet? The way theatre babel have
adapted the text and staged it, make me confident the first night performances
will grow as the audience adds its own dynamic to the production.
© Thelma Good 19 April 2001
Reviews of other Theatre babel productions
Medea
first performed in 2000 review from 2001 Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Uncle Vanya
2002 first performance
"Come Strumpet, famous whore!" John Kazek (Soranzo) and Frances Thorburn
(Annabella) in Theatre Babel¹s Tis Pity She¹s a Whore. Photo credit
© Martin Phillimore 2001