Graeae Theatre presents
" ..a show of great power and ingenuity...ground-breaking and boldly new..."
Birmingham Post
"Tough drama...trawls a coil of barbed wire through the emotions..."
Birmingham Evening News
PEELING
written by Kaite O'Reilly, directed and designed by Jenny Sealey
"I feel more like a clothes horse than a commentator on war...."
And so Alpha, Beaty and Coral - three actresses in ridiculous dresses - bicker, chat, heckle and share tales of sex, lies and recipes in absurd isolation as an epic production unfolds around, and in spite of them.
Our anti-heroines are gradually stripped of all pretence as their darkly comic and devastating truths are uncovered.
peeling explores an entirely new narrative of theatre, weaving in audio description and sign language as a wholly natural part of these extraordinary women's personal but resonant stories.
Dates on Tour include:
Birmingham Rep The Door 14-23 February
Manchester Royal Exchange studio 28 Feb - 2 March
Exeter Phoenix Arts Centre 14 March
Soho Theatre London 3-13 April
for details of other dates on tour, contact Graeae Theatre on 0207 681 4755
Reviews
BIRMINGHAM POST
Perched atop huge dresses constructed llike concrete dollops of meringue, three actressses await their cues of the trojan women. Being just the occasional chorus, the trio have time to slip out of character, and their ridiculous costumes and divulge the dark, often hilarious truths about their lives.
Caroline Parker's self sufficient Alfa is prepared for an epic, hiding knitting, soup and
snacks under the folds of her dress. Lisa Hammond's robust Beaty is a feisty theatre
pro, sewing on sequins on to sexy knickers between scenes, Sophie Partridge's Coral is more concerned, relentlessly questioning and probing for truths about the trio's situation.
And the situation is both comical and deeply serious. All of the chorus have a disability. Booted about by a superficial profession that places a premium on appearances, all the the actresses have lived lives rocked by the actions and attitudes of more powerfiul others - mirroring neatly the sorrows of the mighty Trojan heroines.
Writer Kaite O'Reilly and director Jenny Sealey have crafted a show of great power and ingenuity. Peeling asks crucial questions about identity: what is a woman's relationship to her body, her fertility and her work and how can they uncover the answers when society worships perfection, youth and beauty?
And it's not only in its thematic concerns that the play feels important. There are dramatic innovations too. Audio description, signing and video are harnessed to genuinely theatrical and moving effect, revealing the poetic power of non-visual comminucation. Peeling feels ground-breaking and boldly new.
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METRO
Peeling is an uncompromising work that is both funny and disturbing. Set at the back of a production of Euripides' The Trojan Women, where chorus members Alfa, Beaty and Coral are rendered immobile by huge costumes, it examines themes such as womanhood, disability and war.
Kaite O'Reilly who has written the piece especially for theatre company Graeae has set out to create a totally democratic production.
There are for instance surtitilles for the deaf; Alfa(caroline Parker) uses sign language as awell as her voice: (Lisa Hammond and Sophie Partridge) turn the stage directions into audio description for the blind.....
...O'Reilly's script and cast are both excellent. Sophie Partridge has great comic timing as the laconic Coral, Lisa Hammond gives Beaty a
savage stinging wit, while Caroline Parker is delightfully oevr the top as Alfa.
Finally director/desighner Jenny Sealey has handled everything with admirable restraint, giving O'Reilly's dialogue the emphasis it deserves.
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BIRMINGHAM EVENING MAIL
Tough drama....trawls a coil of barned wire through the emotions....Unusual but compelling..." |
