The swallow-tailed coat

‘The Swallow-Tailed Coat’, devised by Gita Bezard, Alissa Claessens and Fran Middleton, is a joint Blue Room and The Duck House production. It is showing at the Blue Room Studio at 6.30 pm until Saturday 4^th April, with extra shows on Friday and Saturday at 9.15 pm (excluding 20^th and 21^st March).

                 Three friends meet and discuss ways of staying safe and dry in a driving storm. One girl found that part of her clothing took on a life of its own, resulting in some eccentric, hilarious choreography. Whilst battling the torment, one young woman finds an old, ex-hire (?) swallow-tailed jacket. On trying the coat on, the wearer transforms into the persona of one of the jacket’s many previous wearers. The coat completely controls the girl, giving her the body, style and personality of the last man to wear it. One by one, they risk trying the coat on, all developing very different guises.
                The girls have a phone obsession, but not a mobile; it is the local public phone, from which they carry out their business as well as social life. What happens when they cannot share it sensibly?

This hour-long show is mainly in quirky mime, with some dialogue and subtitles! In this, the latest work from the creators of ‘Oscar’ and ‘The Oresteia’, we experience a ‘full symphony orchestra’ playing Pier Gynt’s ‘Morning’. There are no recorded sound effects or music, every note being made by the cast. The show is FILLED with energy, masses of humour and a couple of surprises that caught the audience unawares.

Cleverly and innovatively directed by Kathryn Osborne, and dramaturgy by Emily Taylor, if you are one of the many who enjoyed the zany madness of ‘Oscar’ then you are bound to leave with a broad grin on your face.