Well just for a wee change I thought I would say something about what I've been up to lately, as I have just finished the Wyrd Sisters run up at Bathgate regal theatre (in Bathgate funnily enough) which has been over the last two nights (30 & 31 October, as it was Halloween last night, and a very apt choice for Halloween night!). On more about Wyrd Sisters, its a Terry Pratchett novel from the Discworld series which is basically a spoof on MacBeth (or the Scottish play). This has been something of a rare production as I think Wyrd Sisters has not often been performed as a theatre production, so that in itself makes this choice of play a breath of fresh air. And the company who have put it on are Colour it in theatre, which is run by my one of my acting friends, Martin, and his missus Heather (as Martin is a big Terry Pratchett fan).
So a bit more about the plot, basically the play starts with the murder of King Verence of Lancre, who is murdered by his cousin Duke Felmet. The Duke was persuaded into murdering Verence by his devious and manipulative wife, the Duchess. An escaping servant gives the baby to three witches, Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick, along with the king's crown. The witches then travel to a theatre where they persuade the manager, Vitoller (that's me!) who runs a troop of travelling actors, to take the baby and look after him. As result however of Felmet's new reign as king, the kingdom grows angry with how Felmet has been mistreating the lands and his people, he is also driven to madness by the killing of Verence, and spends quite a bit of the play rubbing his hands to try and wash off the blood (just like Lady MacBeth). Felmet also in order to improve his public image decides that a play should be written about him to portray to the people a better side to him, and sends his court fool off to find a theatre group to write the play. In the meantime the three witches deduce that the baby, now named Tomjon, who will grow up to become the rightful heir, and that it will take 15 years for him to become old enough to take his rightful place as king. Granny then decides to cast a spell over the kingdom to move time forward 15 years so that Tomjon will become 18 years of age, and old enough to become the king, and with Nanny's help they cast the spell. 15 years later, the Fool, who by this time has been courting the younger of the three witches, Magrat, eventually finds two of theatre members, Hwel and Tomjon, and tries to persuade them to write the play, giving them gold coins to sway them. The theatre trio, Vitoller, and his playwright Hwel and Tomjon, his adopted son decide to do the play, and after its written, the theatre group travel to the kingdom of Lancre to perform the play infront of Felmet and the Duchess. But as they perform the play, it doesn't sit right with Tomjon and with the witches in attendance, who are appalled at how they are portrayed in the play, they decide to do a bit more meddling to try and put things to rights in order to ensure justice is done, which leads to the climax of the play, within a play.....
I have to say this is not a mainstream play, and unless you are a Pratchett fan, an audience may struggle to follow it at times, particularly the first act of the play is heavy on plot and requires alot of focus and concentration to follow, and it may not be everyone's cup of tea. The 2nd act is less heavy on plot and helps making it that bit more entertaining for the audience and it definitely has the most fun moments that are in the story, especially the play within the play stuff. But personally I really enjoyed the play and being part of it was great fun, and the cast were a real pleasure to work with, as its really important I think in working as part of an ensemble piece, that everyone gets on well with each other, which thankfully we all did.
As regards to the performances, everyone I thought did a great job, and particularly the standouts for me were Clare Sheerin as Nanny, who get's some of the funniest lines, as well as the title line of this post, "break your own leg!", which she shouts to Hwel, who mistakes her as an actress playing one of the witches. Paul Dundas as Hwel, who acts as Vitoller's playwright, had me in stitches as I found it often difficult to keep a straight face when working with him! Stewart Campbell who played the demon and Tomjon had boundless energy and his demon got some laughs, and how he managed to do that voice without hurting his throat is beyond me! As Tomjon he was also supremely camp, as the young actor who travels to Lancre and performs the play. ;-) Heather as the fool was also really good as she carried a fair weight of the play, as one of the key characters, who has to act as a loyal servant to the Duke, but at the same time she is torn by her loyalties to him as she witness the murder of the king and also how she falls for Magrat and ultimately sways toward to helping bring down the Duke. I also like the scene where she looks to the audience tells how she never wanted to be a fool, but her grandfather pushed her into it and told to never tell a joke that hasn't been approved by the fool's guild. And of course Ryan as the Duke was hilarious, as he played him almost as a half-crazed, bumbling and mumbling version of Brian Blessed, and I loved the moment where he stabs the fool at the end, and says "It wasn't me I didn't do it! Telling lies is naughty!". As for my own performance well I thought I did well as Vitoller, I'm not going to big myself up here, but I was overall quite pleased with the way how things turned out, and I thought I shared a nice dynamic with Paul and Stewart, and it will be a pleasure to do it again in the future.
So that's it for now for my acting career (as such as it is!) and I will look forward to doing Wyrd Sisters again next year, as we will be doing it again sometime in February. So more review posts an all that will follow later on.
Till the next one, bye the now.
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