Stage Review - ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore
Tuesday 22nd until Friday 25th September 2009 @ Redgrave Theatre, Bristol
Congratulations to UWE Independent Theatre Company who have been chosen to perform their experimental adaptation of ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore at the VI Teatralny Koufar International Student Festival in Minsk. Before travelling to Belarus though, the company performed the show at the Regrave for three nights and with a heavy promotion campaign, there was already a buzz about the production.
First published in 1633, the revenge tragedy, ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore, explores the incestuous love of brother and sister Giovanni and Annabella, following their devotion throughout Annabella’s pregnancy and the marriages forced upon her by her father and her suitors. UWE ITC’s adaptation combines the original text with a modern film projection technique. The centre stage screen was functional in expressing the undertones and emotions of each scene and the feelings of lust and love that were not so openly expressed through the physical actions and words of the siblings.
Traditional language can be a problematic format for an actor but the performers were successful in sounding convincing of the time, although their confidence in the language made the speed of their dialogue slightly difficult for those of us less used to it to understand every sentence that was said.
That said, the projection screen and physicality of the actors communicated the storyline well enough to the audience that you didn’t feel too lost in not understanding every word.
The cast worked well together and just when you thought all the big action was over, they would surprise you with an extremely provocative sex scene between the siblings (creating an awkwardly silent and motionless audience, broken only by a whisper from the seat behind: ‘This is SO creepy’) or a horribly bloody and gruesome sword fight between the suitors, reinforcing the tragedy of the script.
The chemistry between Annabella and her tutoress, Putana, was particularly touching with some great quotes from Putana, creating comedic moments in between the tension, as was the relationship between the Cardinal and the siblings. The passion of the character powerfully exploded in a fiery monologue aimed at Annabella as he vented his disgust for her behavior and his guarantee she would end up in Hell.
All in all, although the language was difficult to understand and created a few moments, at least for me, of slight confusion, the chemistry of the actors triumphed and proved the cast to be worthy of the performance in Minsk. Good luck to them all.
Harriet Robinson
Copyright © 2008
April 26th, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Really?
Did you honestly watch the same performance as I did?
Worthy of Minsk? Hah. Worthy of a B grade at GCSE i’d say. The projection was the most transparent under-thought out use of multimedia I’ve seen, and totally contrasted with the decision not to set the play in a modern setting.
The acting was at best average, and at worst made me want to shoot first the actors’s then myself. The awkward and pointless sex scenes did nothing to provoke, simply to steal five minutes of my life I can never have returned. The silence of the audience was, for me at least, a succumbing to the utterly abysmal nature of the play and a mixture of boredom/despair.
The language was confusing at points, but would have been made easier to grasp had tremendous cuts been made and character’s been axed as this led to an obviously incomplete version of the play.
For those of you who are looking for a simple phrase to some up this play I will provide one below.
“This play is like the love child of a dog-turd and a bin labelled ‘world’s most usesless actors’ “
April 26th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
Few small editing points :
*actors
*tremendous cuts NOT been made
*characters NOT been axed
May 20th, 2010 at 8:21 pm
Completely agree with the above comment. It was one of the worst productions I’ve ever seen. The projections were so bad that I actually found them somewhat amusing but nevertheless extremely awkward. And as for the ’sex scene’ … my God, what were they thinking? The scene obviously had implications for the actress playing Annabella too, as every few seconds she’d almost lose her dress and have to pull it up again.
I could go on, but I think ‘John Ford’s’ comment made my point very well:
This production of ‘Tis pitty she’s a whore’ was one of the worst productions I’ve ever seen. And I’ve sat through my 6 year old niece’s christmas play.
May 20th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
*Tis pity she’s a whore
July 30th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Can’t quite believe the vitriol of these comments. Saw the production last night at The Tobacco Factory, and it was fantastic. Best student production I’ve ever seen. Acting terrific, precise, passionate and media worked beautifully. Good luck to them.
August 1st, 2010 at 10:20 am
I completely disagree, I know all the actors and did drama with a lot of them and I am disgusted by your comment. I went to the same sixth form as u (user name) ‘john ford’ and did drama there and I am horrified that someone from my own college could leave such a nasty comment. Most of those actors have done extremely well doing drama at uni and graduated with a 1st class, which in my opinion means far more than GCSE’s. There are reviews and evil snidey comments and yours is not a review. This theatre company has done extremely well doing this play for the past year and they have had nothing but fantastic reviews. Fair enough everyone is open to their own opinion but calling the production ‘dog shit’ is just extremely immature and the exact attitude of an unexperienced drama student.