REVIEW | A Double Bill Of Forbidden Love, The Playground Theatre
★ ★ ★
Reviewer - Russell
*Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review
The Playground Theatre is an intimate setting for this evening of stories about forbidden love, directed by Anthony Biggs.
The night begins with ‘Artefact’ by Rena Brennan.
A fantasy piece about the remarkable Betty Ford, and her early life, before she became the campaigner, congressional gold medal recipient, and icon to women across the USA and the world.
It's set in a bar where a drunken Betty reveals she’d always wanted to be a dancer rather than a politician's wife, it’s a very stylish performance by Sophie Ward and the set design is very evocative of the era. She liked a slurp did old Betty Ford, add to that her dependence on prescription drugs and being married to the 38th President of the USA, Gerald Ford, and you'd probably crack open the Southern Comfort for breakfast, Gin for lunch, and champagne cocktails for dinner as well.
This is a fantasy piece based on the idea that Betty found a love letter from her roommate twenty-seven years after they were at college together. It tells us stories of her youth and her dream of being a dancer and it's all fairly charming.
It's also an insight into her simple life before her second husband became president of the USA after the shame of the Nixon era, and Betty herself became an icon for the American people and went on to do wonderful work and establish herself as a leading activist for women's rights. It's an interesting enough piece into the early life of a remarkable woman, but I wasn't blown away by it. I never really got to feel the ‘Forbidden Love’ in this one. Just a nostalgic look and an interesting enough short play about a former U.S. president's wife.
This melts into the second half of the night, a Tennessee Williams play ‘Something Unspoken’ with the whole night lasting only an hour long in total. No one can argue that Tennessee was a great writer, and I’m certainly not going to, there’s a beautiful, concise use of language, an elegant style, and depth to his work.
This is one of his lesser-known pieces, written in 1958 when the themes of homosexuality and lesbian relationships were forbidden, themes in this short play that would have obviously been very close to his heart,
We see Cornelia Scott - played by Amanda Waggott - an ageing southern belle and her ‘companion’ and secretary of fifteen years, Grace - played by Sarah Lawrie, who also plays the barmaid in the first piece. She’s a bit of a battle-axe is Cornelia, a dominant, overbearing bully, cantankerous, pompous with delusions of grandeur and a whiff of faded glory about her. Poor Grace is completely intimidated by Cornelia and is a bag of nerves, she's repressed and frightened, fragile and anxious, and seemingly unaware of her boss's desires.
It didn't feel unspoken enough for me. And I understand it was meant to be a subtle piece, but it didn't feel powerful enough to move me either. Obviously, it’s Tennessee Williams, so there are some great lines being thrown around, the question I ask myself is…erm, why?
Because overall the night just felt a little bit too niche.
The stories no longer seem relevant or offer anything to 2023 other than a nostalgic reflection on how things used to be. There are some stylish and confident performances all around, but not a clear enough or powerful enough message to stir or inspire.
Runs until 30 September 2023 at Playground Theatre.
