Presented as part of this year's Greater Manchester Fringe Theatre Festival, Certain Curtain Theatre presented their one-woman play, 'Woman On Fire' this evening to a very disappointingly small audience of 7 at The Manchester College's Waterside Theatre.
A nicely dressed stage greeted us as we entered with archive banners and period posters, as well as a lovely white wrought iron bench. However, upon her entrance, Claire Moore, who portrayed the Suffragette Edith Rigby was wearing a skirt which for the majority of the time period she was re-enacting, was somehwat too short showing bare ankle and leg It was a nice idea to dress her in the tricolour of the suffragette movement [purple, white and green], but since most of the action took place between the 1890s and the outbreak of the first world war, something a little more authentic in her costuming would have been appreciated.
The lighting I found really rather distracting this evening too. There were two distinct performance areas on the stage; one to the right and one to the left. However, on one side the light was a bright warm straw whilst the other side was a cold steel, and although this worked nicely for the prison scenes, the rest of the time it became quite odd when moving from one area to the other. The other thing which irritated technically was the choice of music. Not only was the vast majority of the background music used far too modern, [egs: Canteloube's Bailero (composed 1923/4 not recorded until 1930) and a Kate Bush song!] but they were at times also overloud, jostling for audial supremecy.
This 75 minute play tells the life story of one of The Suffragette Movement's lesser-known heroines. Edith Rigby. Portrayed by Moore, Rigby is an educated and well-spoken woman of some intelligence and given heart and credibility. However, where the characterisation falls down somewhat is in the body language of Moore. Much of how she stands and her gait seemed awfully modern, and not in keeping with the mannerisms of the era. [egs: she crossed he legs when seated, and allowed herself to become a little 'unlady-like' in her posture]. As the play progressed and the time came nearer to the present, then this became less of an issue, and more of a virtue; but it would have been nice to have seen her 'grow into' these demeanors.
The directing of the play by John Woudberg, was somewhat repetitive and static, and the whole seemed to be played on the same level. Moore was never given the opportunity, even when mimicking others, lampooning MPs, or screaming and shouting as she throws bricks through government building windows, to become anything other than 'middle-of-the-road'. It was all very 'nice' but never once did Moore actually ever raise her voice or break into a run on stage. The whole felt very pedestrian and needy of a dynamic change. Her moments in prison were well realised, but didn't have the emotional impact they ought to have had since the horror, degradation and sorrow we were shown here was little different dynamically to anything else in the play.
It was an interesting history lesson, and I came away far more knowledgeable about not only Rigby, but the suffragette movement in general. If that was the intent, then the play was a success.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 15/7/19
No comments:
Post a Comment