Camden Fringe 2008
Low Down
Shambolic Theatre’s An Imaginative Woman employs unusual performance methods to present an innovative period drama for its audience. Inspired by a short story by Thomas Hardy the play tells the tale of eccentric Ella (Lesley Cook) whose husband is away at sea, leaving her with a young son whom she despises. Quite different from the actual short story, indeed a lot tamer a tale, yet it is still nice to see they have used a grain of an idea to create a plot centralised on two women.
Review
Shambolic Theatre’s An Imaginative Woman employs unusual performance methods to present an innovative period drama for its audience. Inspired by a short story by Thomas Hardy the play tells the tale of eccentric Ella (Lesley Cook) whose husband is away at sea, leaving her with a young son whom she despises. Quite different from the actual short story, indeed a lot tamer a tale, yet it is still nice to see they have used a grain of an idea to create a plot centralised on two women.
Energetic and over the top Ella Marchmill is on the look-out for a new abode to accommodate her family and comes across Mrs Hooper’s (Alice Parsloe) lovely seafront home into which she would promptly move but for the mysterious room belonging to lodger Mr Trewe. When Mr Trewe conveniently moves out the family sans Ella’s husband move in. Ella wishes to make the lodgers rooms her own special section of the house where she can get away from her eager and mischievous child. Mrs Hooper is reluctant to let her saying it is drafty, dusty and quite the worst rooms in the house. Ella, an inspired poet is thrilled to discover Mr Trewe is in fact the famed poet Robert Trewe and the early lines of his poems lie etched in the walls. She attempts to write as he does and her poems end up a poor cousin to his exquisite words though she would like to think she is as good.
Strangely Mrs Hooper remains in the house almost like a servant and like many elements of the plot this is not really explained. The storyline is predictable, semi satisfactory and it really is the unusual sound effects from both actors and the beautiful background violin music that gives this piece an edge. There is a sense we are waiting for something more exciting to happen and it never comes to pass. There is some innovative use of puppetry with the depiction of Ella’s son. He brings various rags to life when manoeuvred by Mrs Hooper. She is deft and agile with her body movements to create the little boy from different pieces of material. Director Claire Lindsay should be credited for her clever staging of An Imaginative Woman.
Cook as Ella is entertaining, but a little over the top making her character quite stereotyped and two dimensional. However after reading Hardy’s short story Cook has made Ella very similar to her character in his tale so credit is due for her excellent interpretation of his words to action on the stage. Parsloe however manages to create layers to Mrs Hooper and is excellent as the small child. Parsloe is a real presence on the stage almost luminous in her representation of a woman who leads a true double life. The moment of surprise when she appears from underneath Ella’s bustle after the whole first scene is very entertaining and she constantly uses her body and voice to convey interesting sounds and movement bringing the house by the sea to life.
An Imaginative Woman will have a three week run at the Pleasance Theatre from the 3rd to 23rd November. Physical theatre, puppetry and music make for an original and most unusual theatrical outing
