Merely Theatre’s Twelfth Night at The Greenwich Theatre

“A theatre company that, literally, makes you want to come back again…”

Merely Theatre in association with The Production Exchange are currently touring the UK with a Shakespeare double-bill: Romeo & Juliet and Twelfth Night.

[Robert Myles as Malvolio – with Belch and Aguecheek looking on]

Nothing unusual in that, surely? Well, Artistic Director Scott Ellis is proud to point out that Merely is an old-fashioned repertory company and is based around a gender-blind casting scenario. So for this tour, the company has ten actors in total. But there are only ever five performing on any given night. Each role has been doubled up with actors, so the combinations available are manyfold.

[Robert Myles as Malvolio]

The style is bare and in-your-face. The script edited so we stick to the action for most of the time. The story, told as plainly as possible, zips along at a cracking pace, at times dragging the actors along behind.

[Luke Barton as Olivia]

Luke Barton stands out for me – doubling as Olivia as well as Andrew Aguecheek. He shows his range, playing the former’s femininity without campness or humour, but throwing himself wholeheartedly into the slapstick of the latter. Close on his heels is Robert Myles, revelling in a Rigsby-esque Malvolio while playing Sebastian straight and calm. Emmy Rose only has the one part – but don’t feel sorry for her. She plays Viola with openness and honesty. Hannah Miles tries a little too hard to be funny as Sir Toby Belch for my liking, but her warmth as the Duke Orsino makes up for it. Finally, the troupe has Tamara Astor as Feste and Antonio. Her laid-back, hippie Feste is at times lost amidst the manic energy of Aguecheek and Belch.

[Hannah Miles as Sir Toby Belch]

One cannot fault the production for its energy and urgency. Sometimes, though, this flows over into a desire to drive the comedy at the pace of a farce, thereby losing some focus. What could be laughter from the audience only receives smiles at times – and perhaps that is the only issue here. In the need for pace, the audience has no time to take it all in which is exactly what we need to appreciate the skills on show. When the pace dropped for romantic and sad scenes, it came somewhat as a relief. I also became fascinated by Barton’s constant fringe maneuvering (slick it back or cut it!) and Rose’s little hops (one step back before moving two forward).

[Tamara Astor as Feste and Luke Barton as Aguecheek]

I leave wondering how the ‘missing’ five actors would do the play – and, for that matter, how they tackle Romeo & Juliet. A theatre company that, literally, makes you want to come back again to find out…

Review by Paul Vates.

Tour details: www.merelytheatre.co.uk

Performances Length: 2 hours (plus interval)

Facebook: /MerelyTheatre

Twitter: @MerelyTheatre

Worcestershire Poet Laureate Heather Wastie and writer/performer Kate Saffin will be recreating the Idle Women’s journey from London to Birmingham, and back to London via the Coventry coal fields.
This double bill will be touring the canal between Saturday 15th April – Saturday 5th August 2017

The nickname Idle Women relied on the initials IW, or Inland Waterways. Once a trainee on the Wartime Inland Waterways scheme had completed her training she was presented with an Inland Waterways badge. So – the nickname – fair or foul?

And what was the scheme anyway? And why am I particularly interested in this particular wartime endeavour, and this production?

The scheme was designed to train women to support the indigenous ‘boaters’ narrowboat and butty carrying of wartime cargo.

My interest? I have written the first in a series of novels for my publisher, Arrow, about three women on the wartime waterways women’s trainee transport scheme. – The Waterway Girls.

Why? Because I wanted to share their experiences amongst others, having heard about them through an elderly friend. Another then revealed that she had taught canal children, and opened my eyes to a culture, which has now gone, just as the commercial freight is gone from the waterways.

I particularly wanted to produce the first in the series of my novels in 2017 in order to celebrate the 75^th anniversary of the launch of the Women’s Training Scheme as they journeyed to and from Birmingham.

These crazy and gallant girls, (bloomin’ filthy too, by the end of their trip through the coalfields) kept going, come hell and high water, come driving snow, and searing sun. They actually had to physically haul the ‘butty’, which was the motorless narrowboat, through the Bottom Road’s short pounds (stretches of water between locks) and through the locks themselves, much as the horses had to do in days gone by until towards the end of the war they were allowed a better route.

The Bottom Road was hellish, and fragile, hence the authority’s refusal to allow the butty to be towed by the motorboat as it approached, used and left the locks. Idle Women they were not.

Day after day they slogged up and down the cut, or canal to you and me, carrying 50 tons of cargo in the motor narrowboat, which pulled the butty with a similar weight of cargo.

Where did they live? In a tiny cabin about 9’ by 7’, and the loo? Don’t ask, but the word bucket comes to mind.

So I was thrilled to hear of this enterprise, and will be going to see it on Monday 24^th April with our drama critic, Paul Vates, and Frost’s staff photographer, Cire Simone of Cire Simone Photography

Worcestershire Poet Laureate Heather Wastie and writer/performer Kate Saffin will be recreating the Idle Women’s journey from London to Birmingham, and back to London via the Coventry coal fields.

This double bill will be touring the canal between Saturday 15th April – Saturday 5th August 2017

Isobel’s War is a solo play written and performed by Kate Saffin based on the experiences of the wartime trainees. Isobel doesn’t think that rolling bandages and serving tea in the leafy suburbs of Oxford counts as proper war work, then she spots an advertisement and encounters a world she didn’t know existed. Idle Women and Judies is written and performed by Heather Wastie – it started as an audio piece (commissioned by the Canal & River Trust) based on the wartime memories of three women. Wastie has now added a collection of short poems and songs celebrating the work and adventures of the women.

On completion of their training they received their national service badge imprinted with the letters IW – Inland Waterways. After the war they were nicknamed the Idle Women and they have been known as such ever since.

Kate Saffin comments, The stories, or at least the existence, of the trainees are known to many boaters and waterway enthusiasts but few beyond the towpath know they even existed never mind what they did. We are recreating this journey to celebrate their achievements, recognise their contribution to the war effort and explore their relationships with the indigenous boaters. We think it’s important to make this journey with these local stories so that we can share the history that is on the audience’s doorstep – or at least the nearest bit of towpath or the pub.

Accompanied by an historic narrowboat ‘Tench’ crewed entirely by women, Wastie and Saffin will tour our canals this summer, stopping to perform this inspiring double bill at waterside pubs, village halls, gardens, an historic pumphouse and even a community wood.

Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

alarum_theatre, #TheIdleWomen

Check out ‘2017 Dates’ on http://www.alarumtheatre.co.uk/

Frost will be publishing a review of Idle Women of the Wartime Waterways next week – can’t wait.