Night Out At: The Regina Monologues & S.P.A.C.E.

This night was a two-header pairing a well-known play by Rebecca Russell and Jenny Wafer with an original Bus Stop Production piece written by Bev Clarke.

Both plays had all female characters, but that’s where the link between the two pieces ends, unless I decide to draw a tenuous comparison between the psychological states of women in relationships, one external and one internal, but this is getting very philosophical and you’re better off drawing your own conclusions. Let’s begin…

The Regina Monologues.

I’m still mulling over whether it should be pronounced “regeena”, or “reg-eye-na” – the first being phonetically more pleasant on my ear, however the latter makes sense being more in-keeping with the controversially-named Vagina Monologues from 1996.

To be fair, I am no expert, either on the Vagina Monologues, nor on Henry VIII’s wives. I vaguely remember something about the Reformation and divorce, but that’s by the bye. If you want a historical breakdown of this period in history, you won’t get it here.

This is a creative piece of theatre with an interesting set. The colour palette combines black and red with a flourish of pink and produced a captivating aesthetic.

The set comprises two pink curtains on either side of the stage for quick costume changes. (I’m not sure if this was a deliberate move, but compensated for the very ineffectual wings of the Hope Street Theatre stage). The chairs are black and form a triangle – three at the back, two in the middle, all facing towards the back for the actors who are not speaking, and the chair nearest the audience faces out. This helps consolidate the adversarial nature of competing wives.

The characters take it in turns to address the audience, each recounting their tale in the present tense for a sense of immediacy. They are elegantly dressed in black with red accents, detailing their stories of love, passion, rejection, dejection, frustration and abuse. They confide their inner thoughts and outline their secret schemes before, during, and in some cases after their marriage to a modern-day King Henry.

Each character is unique, with the best friend, the femme fatale, the lovesick puppy, the gold digger, the opportunist and the child bride marrying out of necessity. Each actor performed well, keeping the energy high, engaging the audience and eliciting positive reactions. Annie (Anne Boleyn, played by Abbey Fitzhenry) especially established a strong rapport with her delivery and comic timing, while Katie (Katherine Howard, played by Naomi Reddy) pulled heartstrings as she went from a strong, confident adolescent to an exploited, abused pawn sacrificing her happiness to save her family.

From each of the wives, we discover their trials and tribulations in a contemporary setting. The script is humorous and light, interspersed with some appropriate darkness, allowing us to explore our full emotional spectrum.

And yet, this wasn’t my personal cup of tea since the jokes felt a bit hackneyed and one dimensional and the script would benefit from some modernisation, but the production was excellent with apt musical interludes and a gorgeous set.

S.P.A.C.E.

This original two-hander by Bus Stop’s Bev Clarke was the second performance of the night. It had a different feel to it, set at home in Crazy’s living room as she embarks on the unenviable task of decluttering.

Sorting has been a very hot topic in recent years, with books and TV shows dedicated to this activity. As a recovering (very slowly) clutter addict, I felt like my mother was in cahoots with the writer, all her worldly wisdom and logic seemed to appear somewhere in the dialogue.

Crazy is an emotional collector, hanging onto things as they remind her of memories she can’t move on from. Sanity appears, (I got the impression they were two halves of the same person) and is the voice of reason, the optimist who refuses to entertain Crazy’s whims for hoarding, overbuying and putting herself down.

Throughout the piece, they revisit family memories, grief, loss and pain.

The stage is laid out with seven boxes which begin with practical verbs: file, sort, bin etc. Around the boxes are blankets and objects that give the space an impression of chaos and disorder.

As the characters journey through the various emotions, the box labels change to the more positive states: “belief, hope, love” and then eventually we arrive at “breathe, peace, relax…”

The conversations and disagreements between the two characters reveal Crazy’s past: her guilt over her father’s alcoholism, her struggles with her mother’s dementia and her estranged relationship with her son. Her personal battles are highlighted too, with recollections of body dysmorphia as a young woman, and then the difficulties of accepting her changing body as she ages. Sanity has a far more optimistic world view, giving herself a wink if she ever happens to catch sight of herself in the mirror by accident.

Together, the women reach a compromise that allows Crazy to move forward.

The attention to detail has been thorough, with the visual appeal of the boxes surrounded by bright, bold, busy, colourful objects (I’m sure one of my old Dorothy Perkins dresses was in there). The women’s costumes represent their personalities, with a neutral palette for Sanity, and colour blocking and stripes for Crazy.

The music and sound underscore the ambiance, giving a sense of the mood and emotions of the scene, with an upbeat snippet of Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – great music to tidy to.

The actors portrayed their characters well, with Sanity (Sue Elliot) as the steely maternal figure, while Crazy (Kirsten Worthington) got the audience on side with her wide-eyed child-like expressions.

The pacing of this second piece was much slower than the first, and was heart-warming and sweet. However, I felt S.P.A.C.E. was a touch too long and would benefit from being one scene less without taking away from the story.

It might have been better to switch the plays around, as the evening would have had a calmer start and then the Regina Monologues would have boosted the energy levels for Friday night drinks in the Arts Bar.

To round up, two very different plays both well-directed, produced and acted. It’s fantastic to watch stories by women writers for female-identifying actors. This is something I advocate and I look forward to seeing more Bus Stop Productions in the future.