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We saw a play today that suffered from a lack of red pen and the most uncomfortable theatre we’ve attended in London.
Years ago, Mirinda directed the Jean Genet play The Maids. She had an excellent cast and I think it was well received. The production did win best design at a one act play festival.
Anyway, when we saw The Maids advertised we knew we had to go. What we didn’t realise was that it was an Australian production that premiered at the Sydney Theatre by the STC in 2013. (I wonder if Karen or Lynden saw it.)
Of course there’s a different cast and the set might be different but it’s the same translation and adaptation.
The London cast were all very good. Uzo Aruba (the amazing Suzanne in Orange is the New Black), Zawe Ashton (played Vod in Fresh Meat) and Laura Carmichael (Lady Edith in Downton Abbey) were all superb. Great performances with a wonderful lack of inhibition and a willingness to lose themselves in character.
The set and the sound design were also fantastic. The idea of the big box which held the maids like fish in an aquarium was excellent. And all those petals! Tremendous stuff.
The direction was good up to a point. The stage had audience in front and behind but I felt the cast played almost exclusively to the front, accidentally including the people behind them occasionally. While actors should work to where the audience is, it’s up to the director to tell them when they’re not.
The play, for me, was spoilt by the length – the director could easily have sliced 20 minutes out of it – and the appallingly uncomfortable theatre. The theatre was so bad that we made a pact never to go there again. That’s the Trafalgar Studio in case I need to refer back.
That makes it sound awful but the performances were good enough that we don’t regret having gone…we just won’t go there again.
It was rather nice walking back to Waterloo through the oddly deserted Charing Cross station, empty because of engineering work.
One funny thing was the train trip home. Simon Callow was in our carriage (he was on his way to the Maltings for a performance there in the evening) and was a bit befuddled with tickets (he’d apparently grabbed the receipt and left the ticket in the machine) and his companion had a ticket for yesterday.
Seems like such a lovely man. He agrees with me about offshore banking. And that voice! A delight.
Wish you had met him when i was with you, glad you enjoyed the play even if the Theatre was awful. Fancy Charing Cross being so empty looks funny. I like Laura Carmichael good in Downton Abbey.
love mum xx
Yes it was very funny watching callow struggle with tickets! A bit of light relief after genet.