OBSERVER: Revolt She Said, Revolt Again
Wit has done it again at the Bluestone Church Arts Space with a rarely performed work, this time by Alice Birch, an English award winning playwright and screenwriter for film and TV.
A feminist play, Revolt She Said, Revolt Again, actually commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company being first performed in 2014, at The Other Place, a black box theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon, England.
Being just as relevant today in a series of vignettes, a cast of four with multiple roles delivered the vignettes over three separate acting areas spread the length of the Church Arts Space.
This in itself presented difficulty for some audience – a tennis match-style of performance, for being seated along the side walls we had to quickly turn left to right and right to left to follow the dialogue. times even more difficult with some segments of softly spoken dialogue or with speedy dialogue between actors located at each end of the space.
Without giving too much away, we started with a man and woman discussing sex as she takes control of his education, while another couple discusses a rejected marriage proposal. Then there is a female worker wanting to take Mondays off while her boss is not making it easy.
Through further sharp, surreal, often funny and dark vignettes, the work became more abstract with scenes that included critiques of pornography, T-Shirts with feminist slogans and a person selling hymens. However, the final scene tells all with the discussion of overthrowing the system and eradicating all men.
While the cast were generally strong, some segments were far too soft in delivery over the length of the space, full credit must go to Jack Twelvetree who stepped in at short notice to a number of character roles. A vibrant performance, Jack.
Information was not available as to the character roles of the remaining cast, Lansy Feng, Madeleine Magee-Carr and AYA.
Revolt She Said, Revolt Again had us connecting with a truly ‘feminine’ voice.
Review by Graeme McCoubrie