Read What The Press Has To Say About Us! |
posted Jun 30, 2010 7:38 AM by RoaN Productions
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updated Jun 30, 2010 7:40 AM
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posted Jun 29, 2010 3:48 PM by RoaN Productions
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updated Jun 30, 2010 11:15 AM
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15 August 2007 Review by ANNA MILLAR
Four Stars **** THIS subtle and compelling play presents
the story of William Wordsworth's relationship with his sister Dorothy.
Written by award-winning US playwright Kristina Leach and told from a
feminine perspective, the piece not only captures the literary
outpourings of the time, but also the social constraints.
Each scene begins with
Dorothy giving an update on the weather, from clear skies to harsh
storms closing in, a lucid metaphor for the restraints of 19th-century
culture. At once trapped and freed by their seclusion in the Lakes, the
siblings live happily, until the unexpected arrival of old friends.
As William and Dorothy,
actors Matthew Waterson and Rachel McKinney are flawless. For William,
as well as being sister and mother to him, Dorothy is his muse, a role
that both defines and suffocates her. A writer of some talent herself,
Dorothy is confined by her role as a woman in a society.
Those familiar with
Wordsworth's work will know he took much of his inspiration from the
nature around him. So too did Dorothy, who enjoyed far lesser success as
a diarist and travel writer later in her life - the script is generous
in its exploration of this. The inclusion of Wordsworth's good friend
and contemporary, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Brent T Barnes) is inspired,
lending a lightness of touch and providing a catalyst for Dorothy's
deeper meditations.
Indeed, as an ensemble, New
York's RoaN Productions does exceptionally well with a script that
refreshingly does little to skirt the darker elements of the piece,
alluding to but never fully embracing the true nature of Dorothy's love
for her brother.
http://living.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=933&id=1286002007 |
posted Jun 29, 2010 3:39 PM by RoaN Productions
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updated Jun 30, 2010 11:15 AM
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August 2007  Review by LOUISE HILL
Four Stars ****
If their Edinburgh debut
is anything to go by, there are great things to come from Kristina
Leach and RoaN Productions. A piece about the lives of Dorothy and
William Wordsworth may not seem the obvious choice for a young American
company casting around for their European premiere (and I confess I was
sceptical), but this is a mature, assured production of a beautifully
written play on love and loss, a moving, truthful piece which is
biography and so much more.
Matthew Waterson, bearing
an almost uncanny resemblance to the young Wordsworth, plays the poet
with humour and just the right balance of honesty and hubris. Rachel
McKinney's Dorothy is every inch the repressed, self-denying, intensely
intelligent sister. Brent T Barnes' Samuel Taylor Coleridge is
simultaneously the light-hearted confidant of both and the tortured poet
who wears his genius lightly. Maria Pallas' US accent is by far the
most marked, but (and I would never have thought I would say this about
so very English a role) she is so utterly the charming, guileless Mary,
the perfect contrast with McKinney's Dorothy, that this is soon
forgotten.
Leach's writing has the
effect of effortlessness, yet manages deftly to combine naturalistic
dialogue with more stylised sections in which her characters' inner
lives are revealed. The most moving of these shows William and Dorothy
playing a game in which they imagine themselves lying in their coffins,
Dorothy asking him to promise not to leave her behind when he dies. Even
without the knowledge that William pre-deceased her by nine years, this
brings a lump to the throat. The cast manage the changes in emotional
pitch between this and comic passages such as the saga of Coleridge's
albatross conundrum with admirable ease.
If anything, and this is
counsel of perfection, I would have liked to see yet more of the
darkness of Coleridge's suffering to bring out the parallels between his
and Dorothy's predicaments, but the lightness of Leach's touch and the
simultaneous depth of her revelation of her characters' suffering is
remarkable. The direction works, for the most part, seamlessly with the
writing (although I am not sure that even the Wordsworths drank quite so
much tea!).
This production isn't
perfect, but it is by far the most compelling, moving 75 minutes of
straight theatre I have seen at the Fringe so far this year.
http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/otherresources/fringe/fringe07-32.htm#G |
posted Jun 29, 2010 3:28 PM by RoaN Productions
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updated Jun 30, 2010 11:25 AM
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Monday, August 13, 2007
Review by WILLIAM McEVOY
The
relationship between William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy was
sometimes uncomfortably close. Kristina Leach’s moving play set in 1802
also features their laudanum-quaffing friend and fellow poet Coleridge,
as well as a young woman who will capture Wordsworth’s heart and break
his sister’s.
This
fine production by a young and poised cast conveys a real sense of the
writing and emotional lives
of these characters. The actors succinctly suggest a strong sense of
the period and the tortured deliberations
that lead to great poetry.
Coleridge,
played by Brent T Barnes, is something of a maverick, alive with
humour, in love with Dorothy’s spirit and her brother’s genius. He’s
struggling to complete The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and fighting both
his demons and excruciating physical pain. His relationship with
Wordsworth (Matthew Waterson) is given a multi-layered dimension.
Dorothy,
skilfully performed by Rachel McKinney, strikes you as another thwarted
female genius confined by the restrictions on her sex. She’s also a
proto-feminist, resenting her lack of liberty, wanting to
explore the world but tied to her cottage and her complex desire for her
brother.
Beautifully
paced, with frequent glimpses of humour and some stylish directorial
choices, this is a strong ensemble
performance of a sensitive piece of writing.
http://www.thestage.co.uk/edinburgh/reviews/review.php/17772/grasmere
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