FringeReview Scotland 2016
Tis A Pity She’s a Whore
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Venue: Chandler Studio, Royal Conservatoire of SCotland
Festival: FringeReview Scotland
Low Down
A brother and a sister fall in love. She becomes pregnant by him and the sister needs to marry to hide her confinement. Her husband realises what he is getting himself into and plots to have them killed. The brother saves him the bother and ends up killing him before being killed himself.
Review
This is a student production with much to trouble it. The script, being a classic requires little by way of critique though it does bring with it some issues with which modern audiences and actors have to grapple. If they manage to grapple successfully we have a triumph. Whilst having none of the lyrical beauty of Shakespeare it is of the same time period, giving distant phrasing and long forgotten phraseology a proper airing; here I felt we achieved a score draw.
This was not a text that was beyond the cast as at times there were flashes of both technique and comprehension that were flawless but there were other times that, they seemed ill at ease. They had the gusto but not the guts of the piece. I felt they were particularly, with the direction, somewhat hamstrung. Of the performances I was beguiled by Sinead Sharkey, thoroughly convinced by her performance and the eye gouging scene (offstage) had me truly terrified for her. The rest gave highly creditable performances in a play that is far from easy to perform.
It was in the direction that I did struggle. The convention, applied at the beginning of the play, of everyone onstage is fine but then to have people depart, stop when they leave the acting area and clumsily return to a seat appeared odd – why did they not just go to their seat? The first half therefore had people onstage for most of it and then during the interval we are all asked to leave for a minimal set change where we got a wedding table. I thought we might get the whole of the second half with a wedding party looking on and I thought this would be fascinating and really underpin the text; the first half convention of having people onstage was abandoned. We then got a second half set change in front of us which was more complex than the one we had been asked to leave for and avoid seeing – it seemed strange.
The set was functional with enough creativity to be admirable. I really liked it and the light bulbs, I am sure I have seen them used here before but here it was great. The Chandler done in traverse works very well and I would love to see this done in here far more often. It gives you such a great relationship with the space and makes the acting much more tangible.
In terms of costume and the technical there was plenty to help and support the performances without becoming problematic or the stars of the show.
The entire performance was one that I did enjoy and the irritation of some of the obstacles for the actors was not enough to completely throw me. As an example of Ford’s work this was a good entry point and as an example of one of the most controversial plays in the English language it was well worth a visit.
