English playwright Bryony Lavery is equally adept at evoking the likes of Chaucer, Langland, Ancrene Wisse, Marlow, Austen and Becket as she is with Georgette Heyer, Evelyn Anthony and Daphne Du Maurier. Her Aching Heart
first staged in the UK in 1990 is a romantic comedy tribute to the
darkness and light of romantic fiction. It is dutifully, respectfully
and hilariously revived for Midsumma 2007.
With one tongue
firmly set in the history of English romantic literature and the other
firmly planted in cheek, past and present are delightfully fused in
this parallel journey of two Harriet’s(Madeleine Swain) and two Molly's(Ruth Katerelos). Opening with a parody of Du Maurier’s Rebecca, the stage is set for a veritable virago odyssey, between “a willful lady and a humble country lassie”.
These mythic avatars find their modern day form in the likenesses of
two contemporary women who have met at a conference, and rather
unremarkably - sans drama -have exchanged mobile phone numbers. There
is a flicker of interest, not like the great roaring bonfire of
vanities of Ye Olde England. The play unfolds between the two eras -
the high drama of adventure steeped romance and the reality of getting
to know someone by short interrupted phone conversations in an era of
jet travel and limited mobile phone networks.
Songs, swordplay,
soft toys, hard riding crops and hair shirts under nun’s habits make
for great theatre folly and often-riotous moments between the two
historic women; both curiously struck by involuntary swooning and
strange libidinal stirrings. Lady Harriet Helstone is full of pomp and circumstance befitting a noblewoman. Swain’s
comic and robust performance is flawless; she transports us with vim
vigor and vexatiousness, to the foxhunts, cascading stairwells of
English manors and fragrant orchards of classic romance. Molly Penhallow is the naive servant girl who loves all creatures great, small and furry, she could bring no harm to any living soul. Katerelos
despite an occasional attack of the nerves beautifully evinces the free
spirit of kind heart, unshackled by the ruthless class system of her
era (or indeed today) and is wary of her bombastic mistress - 'From the moment I first set eyes on you, I have hated you from the bottom of my heart'.
Director Sarah McCusker
has cleverly crafted the play’s tensions and time frames, to juxtapose
the nonsense and sensibility of the great narratives of romance and
it's conceits - that both delight us, sicken us and take our breath
away. Alongside - the profound and humbling ordinariness of true love
that awakens the soul while we are singing a daggy Karaoke song with
the one we love. Ben Kiley’s musical direction is equally deft, comic, poignant and at times reflective. Art Direction by Georgina Campbell and Hope Hayward Rowling is modest yet inventive with an ingenious use of soft toys - a dead deer included. Simple stylised costumes by Melanie Hertz and Ella Misso
help us make the great magical shifts between today’s women -
academics, executives, students and yesterday’s great ladies, poor
house staff, hunchbacked grannies and foppish titled men. Wishing Well
have created a gem of a production that will have audiences chomping at
the leather riding crop for their next hilarious production and has
earned itself a place as a must see highlight of the current Midsumma
theatre line-up.
WishingWell Productions presents the Australian Premiere of Her Aching Heart By Briony Lavery
Venue: Old Council Chambers, Trades Hall | 54 Victoria Street, Carlton South Dates: Wednesday, 24 January – Sunday, 11 February, 2007 Times: Wednesdays - Saturdays@ 8.00pm & Sundays @ 6.30PM Tickets: $22/17 $20 groups of ten or more. Bookings:
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or via phone or SMS 0404889613
English playwright Bryony Lavery is equally adept at evoking the likes of Chaucer, Langland, Ancrene Wisse, Marlow, Austen and Becket as she is with Georgette Heyer, Evelyn Anthony and Daphne Du Maurier. Her Aching Heart
first staged in the UK in 1990 is a romantic comedy tribute to the
darkness and light of romantic fiction. It is dutifully, respectfully
and hilariously revived for Midsumma 2007.
