Wyrd Sisters at 2001 Edinburgh Fringe
Thu, 6 June 2002, 01:47 amWalter Plinge1 post in thread
Wyrd Sisters at 2001 Edinburgh Fringe
Thu, 6 June 2002, 01:47 amWyrd Sisters by Stephen Briggs (adapted from the novel by Terry Pratchett)
Dir. Ruth Rogers
@ Adam House, Edinburgh, 19th August 2001
It seems strangely appropriate to me now, with the Edinburgh Festival rapidly approaching, that the time is due for a much-belated review of the production of “Wyrd Sisters” presented at last year’s Fringe. For many who frequent this site, the Discworld is not at all a strange place. Neither should it be to the man known as PTerry, whom I am informed was in the audience for the performance I attended. (Upon hearing this, I dashed downstairs and checked the thronging Edinburgh Fringe crowd, but could not confirm the rumour.) But on the provincial Fringe scene, perhaps, the audience needed the programme note informing them that the Discworld “is a place of magic.... and witches.”
The first thing that struck me about the programme, though, was the length of the cast list. This production was Pratchett on a budget, and in spite of my involvement with Blak YakÂ’s Pratchett shows (7 characters in a first act!), nothing prepared me for the possibility of performing a Pratchett with less than 10 actors. Wonderland Productions (based in the University of Bristol) do it with eight. It is only the witches who are not called upon for multiple roles.
This is the Discworld version of Macbeth, but one does not expect things on the Discworld to be as they are on Earth. The evil Duke, goaded to murder by his wife, thereafter takes increasingly desperate measures in order to rinse the blood from his hands. He sets out to destroy the forests. A playwright is commissioned to write a propaganda piece to legitimise his claim to the throne. But he cannot defeat the Wyrd Sisters, a trio of witches who act to save the kingdom.
The witches themselves, Nalina Chetty as Granny Weatherwax, Beatrice Fenton as Nanny Ogg and Helen Priscilla Matthews as Magrat Garlick, all, to a wicca, played witches. They adopted an unfortunate screech often substituted for projection, losing any variety in the voices of the leading ladies, and which bordered upon the annoying. This was unfortunate, because they never allowed me to believe that they actually were witches. Chetty was particularly responsible in her overacted responses for Granny Weatherwax, who lacked any sense of being the autocratic “crone” of the coven. And Fenton really only hit Nanny Ogg’s strides once — doing some wonderfully obscene things to a broomstick as she rode around the kingdom.
(Well done Kerri and Pat, your mantles as PerthÂ’s best witches can now stretch as far as Edinburgh and Bristol!)
Matthews similarly failed to convince me as the third member of the coven, though I had a second, more personal concern. She lacked a certain quality - by which I mean of course, she possessed a certain something, which is sometimes best not to mention (especially when in the dark corners of this website lurk MeadowsÂ’ and Schulzes, and lit by bright spotlights are dominating, whip-wielding figures of Mahers and Chestertons), not that I ever notice these things, as a rule, you understand, though in this case, and I am sure that Dr. Buttery will support me in this, its significance outweighs all other concerns.... Magrat was most certainly not - and you can trust me on this - flat-chested. This is perhaps a minor quibble, but I had always felt it important that the romance between Magrat and the Fool was not facilitated by any additional gravitational attraction.
Although Ben Sandler and Katie Hayes were the DiscworldÂ’s equivalent of the Macbeths, they were unfortunately not the human equivalent of the chemicals that, when combined, form nitroglycerine. It was easy to see that was the way they had been asked to play their scenes, but they performed as actors simply reciting lines. The humour for SandlerÂ’s Duke Felmet seemed almost wholly reliant upon the sight gags of his ever escalating attempts to wash his hands, and Felmet only seemed to reach full stride in his most manic scenes. Strangely enough, Sandler and Hayes were most convincing in their other incarnation as the Vitollers.
Bruce McNeal’s Fool was good, even though more humour could have been extracted from the fact that his jokes to the duke were very unfunny. But then, there was also a lack of chemistry between Felmet and the Fool. Guy Guerrini is a naturally short man, and therefore had no trouble playing the dwarf writer Hwel without walking on his knees, nor the cauldron-bound demon, both of which he played with relish. It is no surprise that the scenes added to Briggs’ script were mainly scenes with Hwel. I particularly liked the addition of the crystal-ball scene, where Tomjon relates his nightmare of hearing three voices arguing about “turning up the sound.” I confess to some disappointment that Death’s tap-dance scene was not also added, but it’s probably just as well. I may have had trouble with objectivity on that score.
Most impressive was Hywel John, who is a leading man not only as Vitoller’s leading man, Tomjon, but as a real-life actor. His Tomjon was a wonderful display of theatrical “nobility,” and when called upon to play his own murdered father, King Verence, the differences and similarities were both clear and subtle. And his Sergeant Poldy cameo was utterly hilarious (though I suspect that a posse of family/fans were present, as the audience did not even wait for his first line before collapsing into giggles upon his first appearance....)
The play was performed on a thrust stage, and from the first scene it quickly became apparent that the director was terrified of the old “never have your back to the audience” dilemma that occurs on such a stage. As a result there were far too many “director’s moves,” all too plainly obvious, that distracted from the actors’ performances, most particularly in the coven scenes. There were some very nice touches to the direction and use of the playing space, particularly Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg’s flight around the kingdom, which was done with them in the aisles, while the Fool and Magrat kissed centre stage. The enthusiasm and energy of the actors ensured that the show was funny and largely enjoyable, though I believe that it would really only be a Pratchett fan like myself who could see past the play’s flaws.
Neil McDonald
Thou pribbling onion-eyed wagtail!
Dir. Ruth Rogers
@ Adam House, Edinburgh, 19th August 2001
It seems strangely appropriate to me now, with the Edinburgh Festival rapidly approaching, that the time is due for a much-belated review of the production of “Wyrd Sisters” presented at last year’s Fringe. For many who frequent this site, the Discworld is not at all a strange place. Neither should it be to the man known as PTerry, whom I am informed was in the audience for the performance I attended. (Upon hearing this, I dashed downstairs and checked the thronging Edinburgh Fringe crowd, but could not confirm the rumour.) But on the provincial Fringe scene, perhaps, the audience needed the programme note informing them that the Discworld “is a place of magic.... and witches.”
The first thing that struck me about the programme, though, was the length of the cast list. This production was Pratchett on a budget, and in spite of my involvement with Blak YakÂ’s Pratchett shows (7 characters in a first act!), nothing prepared me for the possibility of performing a Pratchett with less than 10 actors. Wonderland Productions (based in the University of Bristol) do it with eight. It is only the witches who are not called upon for multiple roles.
This is the Discworld version of Macbeth, but one does not expect things on the Discworld to be as they are on Earth. The evil Duke, goaded to murder by his wife, thereafter takes increasingly desperate measures in order to rinse the blood from his hands. He sets out to destroy the forests. A playwright is commissioned to write a propaganda piece to legitimise his claim to the throne. But he cannot defeat the Wyrd Sisters, a trio of witches who act to save the kingdom.
The witches themselves, Nalina Chetty as Granny Weatherwax, Beatrice Fenton as Nanny Ogg and Helen Priscilla Matthews as Magrat Garlick, all, to a wicca, played witches. They adopted an unfortunate screech often substituted for projection, losing any variety in the voices of the leading ladies, and which bordered upon the annoying. This was unfortunate, because they never allowed me to believe that they actually were witches. Chetty was particularly responsible in her overacted responses for Granny Weatherwax, who lacked any sense of being the autocratic “crone” of the coven. And Fenton really only hit Nanny Ogg’s strides once — doing some wonderfully obscene things to a broomstick as she rode around the kingdom.
(Well done Kerri and Pat, your mantles as PerthÂ’s best witches can now stretch as far as Edinburgh and Bristol!)
Matthews similarly failed to convince me as the third member of the coven, though I had a second, more personal concern. She lacked a certain quality - by which I mean of course, she possessed a certain something, which is sometimes best not to mention (especially when in the dark corners of this website lurk MeadowsÂ’ and Schulzes, and lit by bright spotlights are dominating, whip-wielding figures of Mahers and Chestertons), not that I ever notice these things, as a rule, you understand, though in this case, and I am sure that Dr. Buttery will support me in this, its significance outweighs all other concerns.... Magrat was most certainly not - and you can trust me on this - flat-chested. This is perhaps a minor quibble, but I had always felt it important that the romance between Magrat and the Fool was not facilitated by any additional gravitational attraction.
Although Ben Sandler and Katie Hayes were the DiscworldÂ’s equivalent of the Macbeths, they were unfortunately not the human equivalent of the chemicals that, when combined, form nitroglycerine. It was easy to see that was the way they had been asked to play their scenes, but they performed as actors simply reciting lines. The humour for SandlerÂ’s Duke Felmet seemed almost wholly reliant upon the sight gags of his ever escalating attempts to wash his hands, and Felmet only seemed to reach full stride in his most manic scenes. Strangely enough, Sandler and Hayes were most convincing in their other incarnation as the Vitollers.
Bruce McNeal’s Fool was good, even though more humour could have been extracted from the fact that his jokes to the duke were very unfunny. But then, there was also a lack of chemistry between Felmet and the Fool. Guy Guerrini is a naturally short man, and therefore had no trouble playing the dwarf writer Hwel without walking on his knees, nor the cauldron-bound demon, both of which he played with relish. It is no surprise that the scenes added to Briggs’ script were mainly scenes with Hwel. I particularly liked the addition of the crystal-ball scene, where Tomjon relates his nightmare of hearing three voices arguing about “turning up the sound.” I confess to some disappointment that Death’s tap-dance scene was not also added, but it’s probably just as well. I may have had trouble with objectivity on that score.
Most impressive was Hywel John, who is a leading man not only as Vitoller’s leading man, Tomjon, but as a real-life actor. His Tomjon was a wonderful display of theatrical “nobility,” and when called upon to play his own murdered father, King Verence, the differences and similarities were both clear and subtle. And his Sergeant Poldy cameo was utterly hilarious (though I suspect that a posse of family/fans were present, as the audience did not even wait for his first line before collapsing into giggles upon his first appearance....)
The play was performed on a thrust stage, and from the first scene it quickly became apparent that the director was terrified of the old “never have your back to the audience” dilemma that occurs on such a stage. As a result there were far too many “director’s moves,” all too plainly obvious, that distracted from the actors’ performances, most particularly in the coven scenes. There were some very nice touches to the direction and use of the playing space, particularly Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg’s flight around the kingdom, which was done with them in the aisles, while the Fool and Magrat kissed centre stage. The enthusiasm and energy of the actors ensured that the show was funny and largely enjoyable, though I believe that it would really only be a Pratchett fan like myself who could see past the play’s flaws.
Neil McDonald
Thou pribbling onion-eyed wagtail!