| Ruth is stranger than Richard |
| First presented in 2004 by Ruth is Stranger Than Richard |
|
synopsis: "Ruth is Stranger than Richard" is the first event by a new theatre company of the same name, bringing together five short plays by Cardiff based writers Lucy Caldwell, Angharad Elen, Viki Holmes, Jane Houston and Bethan Lewis. From an isolated cottage in Norway to the streets of Newport, "Ruth is Stranger than Richard" gives focus to five distinct voices and imaginative landscapes. All five plays will be performed every night, lasting from five to twenty-five minutes each. Directors include Adele Thomas and Sara Lloyd with design by Zoe Hewitt. |
There is 1 review of Ruth is Stranger Than Richard's Ruth is stranger than Richard in our database:
| Strange name.....but great theatre | |
|
Ruth is stranger than Richard
|
[print] |
|
venue Chapter Arts Centre |
|
|
May 28, 2004 |
|
| This review first appeared in the Western Mail Great name, eh – and that’s just the company. To make it even odder the show, which seems to have the same name as the company, is billed as five new plays by five new writers but is actually a quartet. Truth and fiction intertwined, indeed. The evening’s entertainment also bordered on the bizarre, but in a rather agreeable way – four works of anything from a quarter to half-an-hour in length dealing with patterns of modern living from computer games to lying in a bath doing not very much, all with a refreshingly irreverent spark. The most impressive, perhaps, was Lucy Caldwell’s The Longest Night, a kind of pastiche of Nordic ennui, the sort of thing Ibsen might have written if he lived in the postmodern age. A couple of brothers who speak in the kind of English only used by translators while away their time doing the most mundane tasks while talking of Eddas and heroic acts. On this 25-minute evidence, Ms Calwell has considerable playwrighting talent – another of her works, The River, is headed for Edinburgh, an ideal showcase for this company’s talent I’d think. I also liked very much Jane Houston’s The Game, which moved beyond the new-familiar conceit of life-as-virtual-reality (Existence, The Matrix etc) to push the idea further in a way that acknowledges the presence of the audience. Neat, witty and just the right length at 15 minutes. Some productions suffered from lack of technical expertise, notably in terms of lighting design and voice projection, and from the suspicion that they lacked theatricality and would have worked as radio plays (not that there’s anything wrong in that). Viki Holmes’s Fish Anthropology was a notable victim, losing our attention despite some obvious qualities to the writing. Angharad Elen’s Bubble got an assured performance of the programme from Alistair Sill though rarely got beyond the quirky. But these are new plays, new writers, new directors – certainly I have not come across most of the names before. And it’s truly exciting to sit in on an evening (presented in Chapter’s “media centre”, in reality a small bar lounge) that’s bristling with creativity, enthusiasm and real untapped talent – if you were ever at Raw nights upstairs at Demspey’s, you’ll know the feeling. There’s some good acting, too, with Dean Rehman and Mike Geery reinforcing that suspicion that there are actors as well as writers and directors out there we don’t see enough of. There’s not a really duff play in the evening, but can they deliver full-length drama, these four new playwrights ? We’ll see: the most important thing is that an event like this, along with the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama’s night of short devised work, Where Does This Bit Go ?, also at Chapter and supported by Charged Productions, offers hope in a hitherto rather moribund new writing scene in Wales. Ruth is Stranger Than Richard’s artistic director, Adele Thomas, who also directed The Longest Night, seems to be a bundle of energy, creating one of the best nights of theatre of the year. More, please. |
|
| reviewer: David Adams |
|
| If you know of any other existing review, or if you have any more information on Ruth is stranger than Richard, (perhaps you were in the production or were the author or director) then please use the form below to send us the details |