To accompany their current all-female production of “Hamlet” at Hope Mill Theatre, Girl Gang Manchester have also staged an event of four short pieces of new writing with all-female teams stemming from that famous line of Hamlet’s: “Frailty, thy name is woman!” This evening, “Unseemly Women” took 3,000 years of patriarchal lecturing on the female psyche and threw it back to the audience in sharp, incisive and thoroughly theatrical ways. With tampon jokes. And a baby shower cake shaped like a vulva. As you do.
“Queen” by Tayiba Sulaiman began the night in a suburban fairytale setting. Elise Taylor was trying to elegantly give birth without getting her invisible gown wrinkled, Anna Swan was regally holding her hand and giving royal support, and midwife Lydia Hasoon was reading a medical textbook in a corner without showing much interest. Once a baby princess had been born, those characters were dropped and the actors became three narrators. This was the most abstract of the four pieces, playfully directed by Gemma Whitely. From the narrators, we gathered that the little princess was living in a world that was part modern life ordinariness, and part preparation for eventual queenhood. Somehow, she had to incorporate both. As she grew through childhood there were running comments about her life, and when puberty hit, a bucket was held up to the audience requesting donations of sanitary supplies: – the first time this reviewer has thrown one of her own tampons across a stage!
“A Cinderella Complex” by Chloe Beale was an imagined prequel to “Hamlet.” Amelia Hindle and Michelle Parker were being two rather unimpressive, low-status lawyers, and Rachel Creamer dropped in as their client: a glamourous Queen Gertrude. Directed with a vaudevillian touch by Amy Roberts, we discovered Gertrude’s husband the King had just died, and she wanted to know what her options were. With butcher paper and black felt pens, the lawyers did their shambolic best to help, but as women’s rights in property law were five centuries away in the future, the options were quite limited – and Gertrude couldn’t type. She was quite good at being queen, but without a king, that career choice was now removed. The eventual conclusion was that her best bet was to marry another king candidate. And beneath the comedy, that did give an interesting insight into why Gertrude did quickly marry her brother-in-law, and pointed-up the historical constraints that women have traditionally faced.
“The Ghost You Can’t Shake” by Aisling Caffrey moved to a modern funeral reception with an Ophelia (Olivia Hackland), a coolly-poised Polonia (Melanie Crawley), and what appeared to be a sociopathic lesbian Laertes spin-off (Emma Laidlaw.) Directed with dark intensity by Aileen Quinn, this was a very clever and interesting piece that had me so absorbed in the characters and their complicated family dynamics that I was bedding down for a longer play, and was cut-off feeling bereft at a gleeful ending more reminiscent of “Macbeth” than “Hamlet.” Olivia Hackland was superb as a petulant, spoiled neurotic daughter (shades of Princess Diana?), and Emma Laidlaw, her close friend and would-be suitor, equally matched her, giving familiar “Hamlet” tropes such as the drinking cups and the long kitchen knife / sword a sense of danger.
“Vagina Cake” by Laura Harper finished the event with a baby shower in shades of bubblegum pink. Directed with breezy comedy by Megan Marie Griffiths, we gradually caught up on who was who, and why this baby shower was exposing their frailty. Francesca Kingdon was the smiling selfless suburban mother whose life revolved around her small children. Laura Littlewood was the panicking singleton who would miss out on children if she didn’t get it sorted soon. Purvi Parmare, another childless singleton, didn’t want to know and kept trying to go home. Victoria Oxley was the deadpan outsider who was enjoying the party the most, even though she couldn’t carry a pregnancy. The most demanding problem though, was what to do about the cake Kingdon’s character had made, that lovingly detailed a baby in the crowning position coming from a graphically-iced vulva. Such a shame it stayed hidden in a large cake box throughout this delightful yet poignant piece.
Reviewer - Thalia Terpsichore
on - 9/5/19
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