The Week on Stage: From I, Joan to Horse Play - CURTAIN CALL: Horse-Play at Shakespeare’s Globe and I, Joan at Riverside studios take us from a sex dungeon to 15th-century France...
Music in Video: [ Ссылка ]
The Independent
2022-09-04T05:30:00Z
Edinburgh Fringe is over for another year, which means the London theatre scene is coming back to life again after the summer.
This week, we checked out two new plays:
Join us next week for the verdicts on
Typical, eh: you organise an evening of fun in a sex dungeon with your partner and an escort, then someone hits their head and you all accidentally get locked inside overnight. For couple Tim (David Ames) and Tom (Jake Maskall), this unexpected turn of events marks an unforgettable point in their decade-long relationship. Meanwhile, for sex worker Karl (Matt Lapinskas), getting trapped with the couple he’s been hired to entertain teaches him more about himself than he’d previously cared to explore.
In many ways, Ian Hallard’s
But with the play set solely in the dungeon, the stationary aspect is hard to overcome. As the characters feel increasingly frustrated with their situation, so does the audience – there’s only so long that watching nothing happen can feel fulfilling. Slick delivery is needed in order to keep things engaging, meaning that every occasional line flub or awkward joke phrasing is felt. Perhaps this is something that’ll solve itself as the run continues and the performers feel more familiar with the material. Overall, the play is still bonkers enough to be a good time – even if parts could do with a little lubricant.
“There’s nothing wrong with being a girl… except if you’re not,” says Isobel Thom’s Joan of Arc. It’s a blazing statement to those who condemned the Globe’s
Joan greets us and welcomes us into 15th-century France, but not the one we know. King-to-be Charles (a joyous Jolyon Coy) is a petulant, foot-stamping, tennis white-wearing brat, bolstered by advisors who agree with everything he says. Then he hears word that a girl (as they believe Joan to be) is amassing followers by claiming to have been sent from God to lead France in the war against England. Joan’s army may be kitted out like an Urban Outfitters shop window, but they fight in powerful, united dance.
In
The combination of Thom’s charm and energy and Josephine’s script keep the play from feeling preachy. The only time the script loses me is in one of Joan’s final monologues, where Twitter and bathrooms are mentioned. But as the heavens open and rain falls for Joan’s final speech, it’s hard not to be won back round. “F*** your historically accurate,” Joan shouts, met with hollers of an audience profoundly moved.

свернуть