‘Twits, Wits And Bawdy Baskets’ is one of those shows that is very hard to pigeonhole. It is essentially a fast-paced farce but the style is more remiscent of a Restoration comedy, with a heavy nod to Shakespeare. The language used is not archaic but laced with enough phrases like ‘I pray thee’ to give the feel of a genuine period piece and there is a liberal use of song which is almost Brechtian.There are some very good a cappella singing (save for the addition of a tambourine) throughout the show and enough attention to style, continuity and authenticity to ensure that whilst at times anarchic, the comedy never becomes Carry On style or Pythonesque.
The cast of seven were brought together by Doodlebug Productions, led by Steve Cooper, Richard Oliver and Sophie Osborne. Their last production ‘Paradise Lodge’ was a musical comedy about living with dementia but there were no heavy undercurrents with ‘Twits, Wits And Bawdy Baskets’. Writer Steve Cooper had clearly set out to write a fun, entertaining piece free of modern-day socio-political analogies with the position of women in society in particular as well as the distribution of wealth in society, viewed very much from the perspective of the Tudor times in which the play was set and not meant to resonate with today’s world.
Despite having frequent comedic tangents, ‘Twits, Wits And Bawdy Baskets’ maintained a constant and quite sophisticated plot which gave the feel of watching an accessible Shakespearian comedy. The story had unashamed nods to the classic 1950’s comedy ‘Some Like It Hot’, in a similar way relying on a consistent alternation between serious acting and inane comedy. There were also nods to various Shakespeare plays and the varied age range of the cast also helped create an aura of realism to the on-stage world presented.
Aside from the comedy and story, there were frequent obseravations about Tudor life and society. A case in point was the mixed view towards actors and plays with theatre seen at the same time as both an object of culture and a diversion of the devil (a view that can also be seen in the works of Jane Austen, over a century later). The position of women in society was also interesting from a purely historical context. In Tudor times, the idea of a woman writing a play appeared to have been outrageous, a viewpoint now simply absurd with the likes of Carol Churchill and Amanda Whittington amongst today’s most widely performed playwrights
There was hardly a single pause of more than a few seconds during the entire two hour show and with a fairly even distribution of lines amongst the ensemble, every actor was clearly on top form ensuring that the pace never slacked for an instant. With good costuming but no staging or props, this was the kind of touring production which called on the audience to buy into the heavy charactisations and imagine an Elizabethan world on stage, despite the disadvantage of a Civic Hall venue which had the house lights on throughout. None of this mattered to the enthusiastic audience who loved every minute of what was a very varied, funny and energetic performance. ‘Twits, Wits And Bawdy Baskets’ is a fun show, very well performed and it will be interesting to see what the Dooglebugs present next from the pen of Steve Cooper.
Reviewer - John Waterhouse
on - 10/5/19
‘Twits, Wits and Bawdy Baskets’ continues on a tour of North West venues.
No comments:
Post a Comment