I try not to put too many spoilers in my blog entries,
but it's quite hard to talk about Three Women without revealing the event that has
led to the situation we witness in this play by Mari Lloyd. As I saw this on
the last festival day though I think I'm pretty safe!
Three generations of the same family gather on the
morning of a funeral, that of daughter Ellie's child, a concealed pregnancy stillborn
at 22 weeks. Ellie (Lily Shepherd) has not yet come to terms with, or even
fully processed, what has happened, Mum Lorraine (Jackie Jones) has arranged
everything trying to put right events of the past when she herself lost a child
and sank into depression, Nan (Annie Edwards) just wants her family to get
through this but doesn't know the right way to support both mother and
daughter.
This is pretty emotional subject matter and the play
tries to deal with a lot in the short running time. It's an interesting
situation to explore with complex feelings to portray and I feel it probably
needed a bit more time to develop the characters fully. It's also told in real
time, and as such the emotional journeys each of the characters take in such a
small time frame seem a little unrealistic.
Despite that there are moments of really touching emotion
and realistic interaction portrayed by the cast, and a very impressive set has
been created by designer Emily Adamson. All in all I felt it was an interesting
concept and something that with a bit of further development could have a life
beyond the festival.
No comments:
Post a Comment