Reviewed by Paul Davies
November 2013
David Mamet’s Victorian Tale of Lust Lies and Love is directed with panache by Geoff Brittan. It’s a true joy to witness a confident trusting trio go about being nasty to one-another and doing it with such style.
The Wheatsheaf Hotel is noisy for a theatre venue, there’s the sound of the bar next door, and the occasional plane going overhead, and many productions would not have got past those things, but with these actors, and with this play it was not a problem, in fact the bohemian nature of the whole experience only added to the fun, one feels like a groundling at The Globe!
At first I thought that there was a lot of movement of the actors, lots of standing up, -sitting down, and moving for no apparent reason, then I finally realised that there’s a bright red support pillar right in front of the stage, and that the movement helped in this venue.
Bronwyn Ruciak and Cheryl Douglas have some great lines, and, as expected, don’t hold back with any of them. “Go away or I am going to have you killed.” was my personal favourite. While Genevieve Williamson can get laughs with just a look, not as easy to do as she makes it seem.
A new company is probably held together with bits of string, sticky-tape and will-power. There’s been a lot of doubling up of tasks, and a lot of help and goodwill from other companies, but it has paid off. I trust we shall see a lot more from Butterfly Theatre.
