Panto
Did you enjoy that?
No, panto’s not really my thing.

Well, I guess that’s one way to end the evening. Not the reply I expected.

How awful it must have been for them sitting next to me and my pal volubly joining in with every ‘Behind you’ and screaming ‘Sweet Caroline’ as prompted. It reminded me of a school trip to watch Jacques Tati films and failing to find any of them funny. Panto is either your thing or it isn’t and even if it is, sometimes it takes a conscious effort to enjoy the trip.

It certainly felt a bit trippy at times. I did wonder occasionally if a little soma was in the air in this brave new world of traditional panto meets … um…. What exactly? It followed the traditional styling of slapstick, political commentary, dancing, singing, inuendo and an eclectic collection of critters, gender role reversal, good defeating evil and a sound moral story.

Overstepping the mark is different for everyone – I couldn’t handle the Michael Gove bat. A bit too obvious, too crude for me. But that’s panto. It’s using humour to cross lines. And give parents something to explain to their children in the car on the way home.

The animal costumes were, frankly, odd. The feeling they had been plucked from the dressing up box in a rush gave them an odd sense of the amateur. Presumably deliberate not only to contrast with the extravagance of the lead role but to give more of the feel of waifs and strays. Quite unfair given the very enjoyable solo performances and by Cilla the Goose especially. And even more unfair given the utter rampant chaotic joy of the whole performance.

The sound was unclear at times and it struck me that their natural voices without amplification might have made for a more WMC like performance and a less confusing and weirdly sluggish start. But boy did it pick up pace!

The witches were extravagant comperes, pushing and pulling the chaos and glory of the story along in some style. Great singing too – really great in fact. Jack was appropriately clownish and played the audience well. Vic, Gabriel Fleary standing in for John Bishop, deserves special mention – what a generous and complete performance. And alongside Gandalf, Sir Ian McKellen, who as Mother Goose runs the show. She headlines this old story and carries it in some style. Larger than life, bigger than everyone else on stage, Les Dawson and Grimaldi combined.

What a bird. And as my mother would have said, Less of the old if you don’t mind.

Aside: dear WMC, tinned wine is not the way forward. It really isn’t.

Going into this production, I had great expectations for it, because I read the book a few months back and it was so hard to put the book down! You went on an emotional rollercoaster and felt like you experienced it with the characters, like you knew what it was like to go through that because Christy Lefteri is a brilliant writer.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo is an account of a Syrian couple’s dangerous journey to the UK, as their country is undergoing a civil war. It portrays a lot of harrowing events, including the loss of their son and Nuri’s memory is unreliable, as he remembers something different to what actually happened, or what his wife said happened.

The staff at New Theatre, Cardiff were friendly, approachable, and knowledgeable, and we had a drink voucher, so I got a cappuccino before it started, and it was delicious. The atmosphere in the theatre was excitable and the staff were very helpful and wanted to talk about it with us, so it was great before going in. They put on easy listening music when we sat in the theatre and they released the safety curtain a few minutes before it started, so we got a great picture of the set beforehand.

There was a cloth used as a wall (which was brought down close to the end of the show), two windows and an open door, they used multiple sand dunes, a bed (which was used in multiple settings; an actual bed, a place for Nuri and Afra to sit in the back of a van, and the boat crossing the border from Turkey, I believe) and there was an armchair embedded in one of the sand dunes. There was also part of a door by the chair, and it was used later on as a trapdoor, and they projected a clip of the actors being in the trapdoor, onto the back of the ‘wall’ of the set.

They used technology very well in the piece. They used lighting effectively to show when Nuri was talking to the audience, narrating, and they used Greek/ Arabic music at significant moments in the piece. They used the ‘wall’ to project all sorts of things for symbolism or just for you to visualise the scene, so they used an eye to represent Afra being blind from trauma and Nuri who was metaphorically blind, they used it to show bees, they used it when the characters were on the boat, and the sea was projected on the ‘wall’ as well as over the sand dunes.

When Mustafa (who’s Nuri’s cousin) was explaining to him what to do when the bees get angry, which was to become a tree, at one with nature, and he put his hands over his face, Nuri did it, and the cast came on with jackets that were evocative of bees, which was clever. At the end the whole cast came on, looked at their hands and put it over their faces as well which was a lovely and wholesome moment. At the end, when Nuri and Afra were on the beach, there was no accompaniment, or anything else, which was very effective and emotive.

The only difference between the actor playing Mustafa and the character in the bed and breakfast in the UK was one wore a bobble hat, and so the transitions between past and present were not entirely clear.

All in all, there were lots of lovely moments in the performance and they used technology very well to help the audience with visualisation, but I didn’t feel the theatre production came across the same way as the book did, and I didn’t feel very emotionally invested in their journey this time.

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