Emilia had a triumphant debut short run at the Globe in 2018,
a perfect setting for a play that challenges the established attitudes and has
a dig at Shakespeare global iconic status as a writer and now transfers into
the harsher commercial world of the West End for a longer run. It will be
interesting to see whether this overtly feminist writing by Morgan Lloyd
Malcolm with an all-female cast, production team and producers can attract the
wider theatre going audience at the Vaudeville.
Though it is a play that is about a little-known figure
from Shakespearean times Emilia Bassano (1569-1645) who published a book of
poems called Salve Devs Rex Judeaorum in 1611 to express her feminist views
under a religious wrapper to get around male dominated publishing restrictions
of the time, it is written very much as play for today. It is structured with
set piece rages against the suppression of women by men as sound bites for a
young rebellious audience and urges them to burn the (establishment) house down.
The whoops of delight and raucous laughter from the audience tells you that it
is resonating with the early audiences, so loud were they you could often not
hear the next line as the cast did not allow enough time for the reaction to
subside.
Malcolm has taken the book of poetry and the idea of the
Dark Lady in Shakespeare's Sonnet to create a flight of imagination of her back
story as a lover of Shakespeare, someone whose writing he stole for his plays
and a creator of messages of hope for women of the society in a sort of
rebellious WhatsApp group of the time. So determined is she to create this
evangelistic campaigning saint that often she forgets to create a plot and
drama that draws us into the story rather than be the recipient of a lecture.
Only occasionally does she and Director Nicole Charles create genuine moments
of absorbing theatre that hint of what this could have been.
The closing of Act
1 is a madcap portrayal of Emilia invasion of the Globe stage in protest at her
words being stolen by The Bard although this may have lost something when being
translated into a Victorian proscenium arch theatre. Then at end of Act 2 we
get a dramatic moment as Eve is burned as a witch for promoting the messages
written by Emilia before Clare Perkins as the older Emilia closes the show with
a rebel rousing call for uprising that brought most of the audience to its
feet. Indeed, it is Perkins who drives the show along as narrator and cheer
leader with able support from her younger self played by Saffron Coomber and
Adelle Leonce.
It is an interesting idea, but theatre should not be like
being at a political rally but should engage with us in a more subtle and
impactful way by moving us and having us care about the characters not just
about the words they are saying. It was fascinating to go from a matinee of
Emilia to an evening performance of Home I'm Darling just around the corner.
Here is another new play first staged in the cosseted
world of Arts Council funded National Portfolio companies transferring to the
West End with commercial producers. Laura Wade explores the same feminist
themes about the role of women as long-suffering wives and uses the fifties (as
opposed to Shakespearean times) to contrast with the modern era. There is a
powerful and moving speech by Sylvia (Susan Brown) which challenges not only
her daughter Judy but also historical perceptions and attitudes.
However, it is
Katherine Parkinson who is the star of the show as the smart fifties obsessed 38-year-old
struggling to reconcile and understand the reaction of those around her to her
own life choices. The writing is sharp and witty, the staging slick and well-choreographed
and the characters well developed and believable. It challenges the audience by
the interplays between the characters to think of the issues of #metoo campaign
in a work setting and in personal relationships without lecturing and is so
much more effective as a result.
Both efforts are to be applauded for the opportunity they
provide for female writers, directors designers and actresses to challenge
audiences and attitudes in the West End and it will be interesting to see which
is commercially the most successful.
Nick Wayne
Emilia ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Home I'm Darling ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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