Program for The Wild Bride
Saturday, October 15
The world premiere production of Colm Toibin’s powerful play TESTAMENT provided rich grist for the talk-back mill. One of Ireland’s foremost novelists, Toibin has fashioned a rich, dense, muscular, one-woman show that has its roots in Greek theatre.
The unnamed protagonist, in exile at Ephesus, tells us of events that happened in Jerusalem 40 years earlier. She is being hounded by writers to tell the version of the story that falls in step with their mission-driven gospels. She has turned her back on her cultural heritage, she rejects the message the writers claim will redeem the world, and she has discovered her belief in ancient Greek multi-deism.
Her testimony, her version of the true events of the story, is at once a threnody, a passion play for one voice, and refutation of her son’s disciples. It is also the story of people whose country is under the dominion of an imperial power, who have experienced failed revolutions, and as such it has deep resonances for an Irish audience. The radical reinterpretation of the events presented by Toibin would almost certainly prevented its production in a country with as strong a Roman Catholic tradition as Ireland until recently.
The text has the feel of a Greek tragedy, complete with choruses, although all of it is delivered by one actor. Many in our group were curious to see a copy of the script (which has not yet been published) to see what format it takes, including verse forms.
A recurring theme in the week’s plays is the relationship between how we make stories and how stories make us. Saturday afternoon we were off to another adaptation — this time of a Grimm’s fairytale, THE WILD BRIDE.
After the performance we gathered one last time at the Abbey’s Peacock Stage rehearsal rooms, as we would be off to the airport early Sunday morning. We were met by a surprise guest, Andy Hinds, who was rehearsing at the space that afternoon, and he joined us for our last TalkBack.
THE WILD BRIDE provided an upbeat ending to a rich week of theatre-going. Kneehigh, the 30-something year old theatre company from Cornwall in England has developed a unique brand of physical theatre that also incorporates liberal use of music. Their production of BRIEF ENCOUNTER was a hit on Broadway in the 2008-9 season.
THE WILD BRIDE tells the story of a foolish farmer who sells his daughter to the Devil, and her journey to love and redemption. Much of the TalkBack focused on the combination of two folk traditions, the Northern European traditions of the Brothers Grimm and the rural Southern American traditions of the Devil at the crossroads (made famous by the Robert Johnson legend). The result is the magic and horror of the German tales told using the blues, bluegrass and jazz traditions of 1940′s America.
Another aspect of the talk-back centered on the difference between texts that are playwright driven and those that are complied through workshop, making use of the skill sets of the company of actors.The three actresses who portrayed the Bride were: an accomplished violinist from Poland, a singer who had worked with Cirque Du Soleil, and a Hungarian choreographer; the Devil played a mean guitar. Building the production around their talents resulted in a show that was endlessly surprising, inventive, irreverent, funny and magical.
At the end of talk-back, we said our goodbyes to Andy, and broke up onto smaller groups for dinner. Sunday morning we would leave the Gresham bright and early to begin our journey back to Western Massachusetts. And so, another wonderful CTC Theatre Tour came to a satisfying conclusion. Hope to see you on the next one.
