Iris - Review - The People's Theatre

Iris

People's Theatre
10th Sept 2019

I saw Iris when it was first performed at Live Theatre and I remember it as a darkly funny, emotional and tragic piece of theatre. Going along to see it again this week, I did wonder if it would have the same impact - after all, I already knew the plot with all its twists and turns, so there would be no surprises. But, written by Alison Carr one of the stalwarts of  The People's Theatre, this is a play that was coming home. It was bound to be something special.

A play that explores family and relationships, the nature of motherhood, love and hate, responsibility, abandonment, guilt, success and failure, it covers a huge spectrum. And performed in the studio, with a cast of just three, and with some of the action taking place within arm's length of the audience it was always going to be intense.

Two sisters have just buried their mother - Iris. Julie the elder has been away for many years, and had a difficult relationship with Iris, while Ruby, the youngest has been very close to Iris; perhaps too close. On the day of the funeral Julie disappears from the wake and returns later, drunk, with a man in tow.

Emma Weetch plays the older sister Julie - a mess of contradictions, desperate for some human contact yet rejecting any show of affection or sense of connection when it is offered. She is scratchy and awkward and at times downright abusive. But there are cracks in her armour that begin to spread and widen as the play progresses.

Stephen Sharkey gives a deceptively understated performance as Gerry, the unfortunate man caught up in the middle as the two sisters fight and spit a each other like cats. Equally desperate for human contact but in a completely different way to Julie, he hides behind an array of bad jokes and astonishing facts on almost any subject - like a walking encyclopaedia. He offers advice for every situation sounding as Ruby puts it "like a self help book". Of the three characters, he is the most likable and yet also the saddest and perhaps most tragic with his doggedly optimistic veneer hiding a lonely and sorrowful life.

Sarah Mulgrew plays the younger, damaged teenager, Ruby. Like Julie , she is damaged emotionally and psychologically, but Ruby is also physically damaged - having lost an eye in a childhood accident. From her first appearance on stage Sarah Mulgrew exudes a mix of angst and apathy and teenage antipathy. Though all three actors gave brilliant performances, Sarah was the outstanding performance of the night for me - she was completely convincing in her role.

Though I knew what was coming I was still entirely engaged throughout the play - anticipating some of the events and recognising and remembering others as they happened. The second act almost had me in tears as the truth of the sisters situation began to be revealed. it was a highly charged, emotional experience.

An excellent start to the new season, Iris plays until Saturday, and is sold out.  If you have a ticket, you are in for a rare treat - take your tissues. If you don't have a ticket, get your name down on the waiting list and hope someone else cancels!

Denise Sparrowhawk

Be My Baby - Review - People's Theatre

Be My Baby
People's Theatre
19th April 2016

Be My Baby! - the innocent wish of teenage girls everywhere. We all dreamt of finding Mr Right and being swept off our feet. For some, back in the sixties, in a particularly dour Yorkshire town, being swept off their feet had unexpected consequences.  It made no difference whether they were in a steady relationship and planning marriage, the victim of unwanted advances, or taken advantage of by married men, the outcome was the same. Unmarried and pregnant meant concealment, confinement, and adoption. Unmarried mothers were not able to provide a respectable home for a child. They were not able to work and bring up their child. They were bad girls.

Be My Baby by Amanda Whittington is the story of four such girls. Confined to the hospital until their babies are born, they learn together the painful truth about pregnancy, birth and adoption. It's hard to imagine in these days of teenage mothers and one parent families, that such draconian attitudes were once accepted, that young women could have so little choice, so little independence. It is a tragic situation portrayed with amazing sensitivity, humour and emotion by the writer Amanda Whittington, and the cast at People's Theatre. 

Poignantly punctuated with music from the decade  - The Ronettes, The Dixie Chicks, The Shangrilas - Mary, Queenie, Dolores, and Norma work in the laundry and wait out their time, dreaming of their guys and their babies, and planning a future at complete odds with the one society will allow them.
 

This is a surprisingly gentle and humorous play about a harsh and unforgiving situation. Relationships are forged and unforged, bonds made and broken, between friends and lovers, and between a mother and a daughter.
 

The direction and perfomance are deceptively understated, making this an incredibly touching piece of theatre. Impressive performances by the cast ensure that the audience are in full sympathy with the characters - unlike the 1960s society that would not acknowledge them. there may have been a lot of love around, but for these girls it was barely free.
 

Be My Baby plays until Sat 23rd April and is well worth seeing, especially if you think we haven't moved on much as a society...

Denise Sparrowhawk

Iris - Review - Live Theatre

Iris
Live Theatre
7th April 2016

Iris is a compelling piece of drama which tackles some huge issues. Motherhood, sisterhood, grief, guilt and legacy. It explores the relationship between two sisters and their mother, and the lasting influence a parent can have on her children.

The central character is the elder of the two sisters, Julie (Katy Cavanagh), and the play essentially follows her discovery of herself as she battles through her own internal conflicts and finally comes to terms with the legacy of her relationship with her mother, Iris. She has returned home after many years away, and minimal contact with her mother or sister Ruby (Sam Neale), for Iris's funeral. There is friction between the two sisters fuelled by Julie's guilt and Ruby's resentment. At first it seems that Julie's guilt is purely due to her abandonment of her sister, but as the play progresses more and more of the circumstances of Julie's life with Iris are revealed and it becomes clear that the mother daughter relationship was hugely flawed.

Ruby is much younger - it was hard to put an age on her but the "whatever" attitude suggested teenage. Certainly she is immature, having been overly protected by Iris after a childhood accident.

As the play opens Julie is returning to the house, drunk, with a man in tow. The remains of a buffet and drinks are left on the coffee table and dining table, but the notion that there has been a party is quickly dismissed when Gerry (Joe Caffrey) draws attention to the debris. It is not until later that we discover it is the day of Iris's funeral and Julie has abandoned her sister and the few friends who turned out, at the wake.

Alison Carr has written Iris with humour and compassion. There is much that could be disliked in the two women, but the audience never feels it. The themes of self awareness and self discovery run through the play - symbolised by the many mirrors that adorn the walls of Iris's home and echoed in the repetition of Iris' mantra to "always be able to look ourselves in the eye".

The set of the play is the front room of the house - ordinary, except for the mirrors - but as the second act begins the walls are suddenly transparent for a moment to show the cracks beneath the surface, before the scenes begin and the cracks are covered.

This play unfolds like a puzzle - it is clear from the start that there are unresolved issues between the sisters, and within Julie herself. Iris, their mother, although dead, is a constant presence within the play - a malevolent one for Julie, but a more ambivalent presence for Ruby. Into the middle of all this is drawn the unsuspecting Gerry - one of life's helpers. He acts as the catalyst which draws out the truth for both women. slowly revealing clues for the audience as well as the sisters, so that we piece together the history of the family bit by bit. Like one of Gerry's puzzles the answers gradually fit together until almost all the pieces are in place and the truth is revealed. It's a hard truth and it could easily break any or all of the characters, but Alison Carr ends the play on a note of hope.

Excellent production, clever writing and sympathetic acting by the three members of the cast. Brilliant.

Iris plays until the end of April.

Denise Sparrowhawk