In December 1922, twenty-eight-year-old Edith Thompson was put on trial for inciting the murder of her husband, Percy Thompson. Just two months earlier, twenty-year-old Frederick Bywaters had stabbed Percy as he walked home. The prosecution claimed Edith told him to do it, using love letters sent to Frederick from Edith as evidence. Edith was found guilty, but this verdict inspired a petition signed by over a million people.

The bizarre ‘love-triangle’ between Edith, her husband and her lover, Freddy, is an intriguing tale and there is even a website ‘dedicated to the memory and innocence of Edith Jessie Thompson who died aged 29 at Holloway Prison on 9 January 1923’ filled with transcripts, press coverage, copies of the love letters and reams of photographs- one particularly odd addition, showing Edith between Freddy and her husband, Freddy’s head on her hip and Edith embracing it. It’s certainly worth a glimpse if you’d like to find out more- https://edithjessiethompson.co.uk/

One hundred years later, using the real court transcripts, Crowded Room re-examine the sensational case of one of the last women to be executed in this country. The judge opens the proceedings: “You should not forget that you are in a court of justice trying a vulgar and common crime. You are not listening to a play from the stalls of a theatre.” How very apt then, that we ARE in fact listening to a play from the stalls of the theatre and although we cannot turn back the clock and give Edith Thompson the treatment she may have deserved back in 1922, we CAN re-examine as onlookers and let it teach us a lesson- one of justice, hope and change.

Verbatim theatre is a form of documentary theatre, making use of real people’s words and testimonies. Actors performing this style often speak of a sense of responsibility and loyalty to the real people that they are playing, and the importance of delivering an authentic performance. This is certainly felt throughout this production and during the post-show discussion. It is clear from the outset that a huge amount of research has been done in order to represent this story and its characters, authentically. Although of course, we are talking about people living in the 1920s, so access to video footage, social media, television interviews etc. don’t exist, which must’ve made this all the more challenging for Crowded Room.

Crowded Room are an award-winning theatre company specialising in true stories and they do this exquisitely. Working with women from HMP Styal, they have created a fantastic piece of theatre which emerges the audience in this trial and transports us back to a time when only one woman sat on the jury, when there was no such thing as DNA testing and when the only way of keeping up with the news was in a newspaper or on the wireless.

From the moment the play begins, we are invited to become the jury, to make judgements and decide for ourselves whether we would have sent Edith Thompson to the gallows. When the cast say ‘all rise’, they mean it! Would the verdict be different a hundred years later? The set is simple but effective- a chair for each actor and screens to display character names, locations, days, interviews and Edith reading some of her love letters aloud- a nod to the contemporary in order to provide clarity for the audience. Although the cast seem to be bringing the story into the modern day with the use of technology to drive the action, some modern music choices and up to date fashion, the language of the piece takes us right back to the 1920s, due to the majority of the script being taken directly from transcripts of the time. There feels no need to bring this piece into the modern day as many of its themes and topics are still relevant today.

The piece is structured as the trial would have been and even includes ‘recess’, rather than an interval, during which the house lights are brought up and the actors seemingly come out of character to take a drink or look at their mobile phone. This was a time to reflect as an audience. However, these were also moments to ‘keep-watch’ as the cast still had ‘something to say’ throughout these instances of pause. Ear defenders are donned, possibly signalling the need for calm within the courtroom or to block out the opinions of us, the jury. Or to symbolise the lack of real listening or communication throughout the real trial? During one recess, the actor playing Freddy sits casually and uses their mobile phone- as a twenty year old man would today. What would Freddy’s WhatsApp messages read if he had been able to send them a hundred years ago? All of these little details get the cogs whirring!

With only five in the cast, each has more than one role to play, and all do it wonderfully- though not with costume changes or entrances and exits, but by cleverly adapting their body language, tone of voice and/or accent. This is so brilliantly done that there isn’t room for doubt- we know who’s who throughout. This is also done with a touch of comedy, an important addition to this otherwise serious plot.

It is an interesting time for this tale to be re-told because, believe it or not, it was announced at the beginning of this year that Edith Thompson’s case is to be reviewed as a potential miscarriage of justice. It has been referred to the Criminal Cases Review Commission and a government spokesperson has said it would provide closure to Edith’s family.

To find out more about Crowded Room’s production of Edith, visit their website-
http://www.crowdedroom.org.uk/edith.html

Theatr Clwyd, Mold
Friday 17th to Saturday 18th of March 2023

Cast:
Edith: Ivy Corbin
Freddy: Peyvand Sadeghian
Percy: Mark Knightley
Prosecution: Rosie-Marie Christian
Defence: Harriet Madeley

Creatives
Writer: Harriet Madeley
Director: Madelaine Moore
Producer: Danica Corns
Stage Manager: Tsiala Corboz Werntz
Set & Costume Designer: Sascha Gilmour
Video & Lighting Designer: Luca Panetta

(5 / 5)

This show had a highly regarded reputation and an amazing preconception, so I had high expectations going into it.

Let me set the scene. When you enter the sold-out performance space, it’s with excitement and anticipation in the air. There are smells, and alternative pop music being played. A bus stop is in the middle of the stage, with about nine black poles dotted around it, and an electronic screen in the middle of the bus stop displaying places in Swansea and times. The screen showed drug terms and definitions before the play started, such as “chasing,” “methadone,” “tick,” “weighing and bagging,” “chasing the dragon,” and “sorter” (which I hadn’t realized until now was a drug term; it means using a drug as payment for work instead of money). This was cleverly used for setting the scene, and these were the terms the performers used in the piece. If you remembered what some of these terms meant, you could understand it when they used them in the piece. The electronic screen was also used to show captions during the performance, as Friday night’s show was one of the captioned performances.

There was an orange light from the left corner, a purple light from the right, and a blue and a green from respective sides of the bus stop before the performance started. The performers used colour so cleverly during the piece, and they had multiple magnetic lights that they would take at different points and put them on the poles to set the scene for what they were describing, as the set was minimalistic. For example, for one scene when Richard Mylan is describing “memory 3,” with a guy named Ernie and a gas fire that he, when he was younger, was getting warmth from, they took a light to that pole, and the light was a warm orangey glow like a fire, to help emphasise the scene for the audience. There were also lights behind the bus stop. An excellent example of the riveting nature of the piece is the use of seagull noises in the background, such as when Sophie Melville’s character gets a view of Mumbles. At another point, there was an electric spark and a heartbeat that kept getting faster. There are many ways in which they use lighting and sound cleverly to envelop the audience into the story.

It is very fast paced, as Richard Mylan will tell his story, and then Sophie Melville will continue with hers, and it goes back and forth throughout, so you have to try and remember what happened in each story. “Sorter” was about a nurse who got addicted to morphine, and he was a high-functioning drug addict, which is based on Richard Mylan’s (writer and actor) life. Sophie Melville played a character who was addicted to drugs, and her boyfriend was also her drug dealer. “Sorter” was an astonishing and impressive piece. It was immersive, with moments of laughter amidst the darkness, and you really felt sympathy for the characters.

It made you think retrospectively about how harshly you judge homeless people or people addicted to drugs, when many factors go into becoming addicted to something. As Sophie Melville’s character says in the piece, “they are almost impossible to get off” [paraphrased], and a lot of factors go into becoming homeless. Who are we to judge these people when they don’t get the help they need? It was eye-opening and shocking but a must-see. You had to see it in the Grand Arts Wing because you had to be in thrust and a small stage to feel close to the characters, feel sympathy for them, and understand them. Also, there were lots of references to places in Swansea, one being when Jess, Sophie Melville’s character, climbs up on the ladder behind the bus stop and talks about how “people like her don’t deserve to have such a breath-taking view of the Mumbles and Swansea, living in Mayhill” [paraphrased].

Richard Mylan and Sophie Melville are exceptional and tell the story so well that you wish you hadn’t missed it.

(5 / 5)

Just over a year ago, I attended The Da Vinci Code at Theatr Clwyd. Although I enjoyed this production, I felt that the book simply didn’t translate well to the stage, mainly due to the amount of detail included in the plot which there just wasn’t time to delve into in two hours. However, the same certainly cannot be said of The Shawshank Redemption.

Based on Stephen King’s 1982 novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, this production examines topics from injustice to friendship and most notably, hope, in a place where the word ‘hope’ seems impossible: Shawshank Maximum Security Penitentiary. The 1994 movie starred Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman and was nominated for seven Academy Awards. Among the movie’s fans were stand-up comedians Dave Johns and Owen O’Neill who realised the potential for Shawshank as a theatre production. The Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, where this current tour will end, agreed, and an adaptation of the original novella was first produced there in 2009. It then transferred to London and the adaptation was rewritten and put on in Edinburgh in 2013, with its adapters co-starring alongside Omid Djalili as Red.

For those not familiar with The Shawshank Redemption– it tells the story of Andy Dufresne who, despite claiming to be innocent, is given a double life sentence for the brutal murder of his wife and her lover. Incarcerated at the notorious Shawshank facility, Andy strikes up an unlikely friendship with the prison ‘fixer’, Red, and as their relationship strengthens, things seem to be looking up. However, when Warden Stammas decides to exploit Andy’s talents for accountancy, a desperate plan is hatched.

As the play begins, we are transported to the penitentiary. The set is simple but extremely effective with the prison walls surrounding the stage on both sides and upstage, allowing for a feeling of claustrophobia throughout. The main bulk of the set remains, but as the story unfolds, each scene is set within the walls: a postered wall and a bed for Andy’s cell, a desk, chair and wireless for the warden’s office, a long mess table and chairs for meal times. The transition between scenes is flawless, with the actors completing all set and prop movement seamlessly. Most scene transitions are also marked with a prison siren or alarm to signal a new location or place in time. The fluidity of the piece is extremely impressive, the action narrated by the character Red, portrayed perfectly by Ben Onwukwe. Red speaks directly to the audience, often regarding sensitive prison topics such as gambling, rape, corruption and so on, and he draws us in, allowing us to empathise not only with him, but with other inmates at Shawshank so we better understand life within the walls- we are allowed on a journey with each character over the course of the ‘twenty years’ we spend with them. And it’s not without a great sense of humour and plenty of comedic elements. Also noteworthy is

Red’s final monologue which he delivers as he completes a full costume change, reflective of his character’s change from despair to hope. A ‘changed’ man?

Joe Absolom’s Andy is the perfect mix of kind, compassionate, determined, if not a little arrogant in his own self-sufficient way. Absolom provides the character with just enough ‘crazy’ to have you questioning his every move. Consequently, even those familiar with the story begin to question the outcome! Credit must go to the lighting team- providing an appropriate atmosphere throughout. From the spotlights on the new ‘fresh’ inmates at the very beginning, to the effect provided for Andy’s fluttering butterfly at the end. Lighting is also used effectively to depict the men watching a Rita Hayworth movie, giving the impression that a projector is being used, as well as for scene transitions and instances of violence which are cleverly choreographed alongside appropriate light and dark moments.

Dave Johns and Owen O’Neill were certainly spot-on in believing that The Shawshank Redemption could work well in the medium of theatre. The prison setting makes for a fast paced, adjustable, well thought out production, which shifts from scene to scene effortlessly. With the addition of successful sound, lighting, costume and a fantastic cast, this is a must-see production.

The Shawshank Redemption continues its UK Tour on March 6^th at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry and finishes on May 13th at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin. Head to the website to book your tickets:

The Shawshank Redemption – 2023 Tour

Theatr Clwyd, Mold

February 27^th-March 4^th, 2023

Cast

Andy Dufresne: Joe Absolom

Ellis ‘Red’ Redding: Ben Onwukwe

Warden Stammas: Mark Heenehan

Brooksie: Kenneth Jay

Hadley: Joe Reisig

Entwistle: Owen Oldroyd

Bogs Diamond: Jay Marsh

Rooster: Leigh Jones

Rico: Jules Brown

Dawkins: Kieran Garland

Tommy Williams: Coulder Dittman

Kelly: Samarge Hamilton

Creative

Director: David Esbjornson

Associate Director: Tim Welton

Designer: Gary McCann

Lighting Designer: Chris Davey

Sound Designer: Andy Graham

Fight Director: Alison De Burgh

Company Stage Manager: Simon Bannister

Deputy Stage Manager: Lucie Jackson

Technical Assistant Stage Manager: Sam Scott

Lx No 1: Matt Chaloner

Costume Supervisor: Johnny Palmer

Head of Wardrobe: Nadine Conell