Just to confirm what a great week it’s been at the theatre this week, here’s John Slim’s 5 star review in The Birmingham Mail of the other show in The Crescent Theatre’s double bill.
Still alarmingly haunted by Rosie’s song By the Bog of Cats, it has taken me a couple of days to write this. I wasn’t sure what to expect prior to seeing the play and walking in to the dimly lit studio, I still wasn’t sure. Against a backdrop of tatty old caravan, a line of children’s clothing drying in the bleak wind and a knackered set of garden furniture, the atmosphere was haunting, spooky and poignantly sad. Automatically you knew this was going to be a dark play with sorrow and tragedy from the outset. Before even a word was said, Sarah and I were in tears. The opening song was truly beautiful.
Katie who played Hester Swaine was marvellous. As a deeply troubled young woman trying to do right by her daughter, the audience was overcome with understanding for her plight and sympathy for her heartbreak. And Rosie who played Josie, Hester’s daughter, was beyond talented. I was bowled over by how real her innocence was, she was magnificent. For a young girl working with such difficult subject matter, you might imagine her resolve to falter somewhat but no, she made you believe, she enveloped you in her childlike innocence and eagerness to please. She was truly captivating. This of course made the ending so much harder to bear and so much more real.
However there was some light relief ever so periodically with the wonderfully played Granny Kilbride. The speech delivered at The Wedding was superbly executed and wonderfully funny. It offered the much needed respite from the rest of this deeply distressing play. Norman’s portrayal of the sozzled priest again provided some gentle comic relief and made for such a great Wedding scene.
Each character, from Caroline to Simon, the ghost to Catwoman, Josie to the deadBlack Wing made for a truly excellent play full of deep sorrow, conflict and misery. If I can stomach more emotion, I shall see it again but for all of those who haven’t seen it, make sure you do but take some tissues…
By the Bog of Cats – Interview with Katie Edwards
Katie as Hester
We interviewed crescent member Katie Edwards on what we can expect from By The Bog of Cats, which opens next week.
Q – How would you describe the play in a sentence to those of us who don’t know it?
K – It’s a bit of a mix of old Irish superstition, mysticism and the actions of a wronged woman which ends in horrific tragedy.
Q. You play the leading lady Hester Swaine (previously played by Holly Hunter & Mary Elisabeth Mastrantonio at the Donmar in London) how would you describe the journey of your character ?
K – Hester was abandoned by her mother as a child of about 11. A ghost fancier comes to collect her soul at the beginning of the play but he has come at the wrong time, bit like a grim reaper but more normal spirit (Colin Simmonds). There is mystical significance with her and a black swan who has just died and she is very close to, it had been predicted that she would live as long as the swan.
On top of this Hester has been dumped by Carthage (Simon King), the father of her 11 year old daughter, and she has never gotten over this and is desperate to get him back.
Basically people are trying to get her to leave the Bog of Cats as the land that she lives on in her caravan and house are owned by carthage and Caroline now as she was forced to sign over any hold on the land when she was in a vulnerable state.
Hester is a bit clairvoyant too and is visited by the ghost of her dead brother which gives us further insight into her tragic and somewhat shocking past.
Playing Hester has proved to be extremely challenging and it took me a while to get inside her head. She is a very complex person ho seems to be emotionally underdeveloped and although being extremely worldly in some ways, she is a lost little girl in others. As a result, she deals with situations she can’t cope with in a very destructive way.
Hester is constantly on the brink of some kind of situation and so in that respect I am unable to ‘chill out’ at any time throughout the whole play. There are so many characters who have some kind of grievance with Hester, or vice-versa, and because of this, the action develops into a car crash that seems inevitable.
Q- Blimey, how do the other characters fit into the play, we heard a rumour about Jo eating mice?
Well Caroline’s Dad (Les Stringer) is a bit of a git and it is hinted at that he may have abused caroline before and been responsible for the death of his own wife and son. Cathage’s mum (Pat Dixon) is a mean woman who is always being nasty to Josie, Hester’s daughter, and hates Hester.
Jo, not eating mice
Catwoman (Jo Thack) is a clairvoyant and yes eats real mice, but you have to watch the show to see if she does this live on stage! She is also blind, and she tries to warn hester to leave as she knows something awful is going to happen and like Monica (Chrissy Griffiths) they desperately try and reason with hester to leave.
Thanks Katie that’s fantastic, I can’t wait to see it. With such a gripping plot and a formidable cast I fully expect to be blown away!
Now with just a month to go, By the Bog of Cats is shaping up to be a brilliant piece of theatre. It is a play of some depth and breadth I can tell you!
As a general rule when you start working as a company on a show, it is a pretty rare event to still be finding new things out about the play at this stage . However the discussions about motivations and character interpretation still rage on.
The cast are wonderful and the show is brilliant – so come and see it!
Yesterday someone asked me “What’s Bog of Cats about?”. I have to say I found it a hard plot to describe without it sounding like a melodramatic soap opera. It really is about loss I suppose. Its themes are massive and human but the play has its lighter moments. It’s a play really for grown-ups.
As a company we have been going through the play almost a sentence at a time to understand the massive sub-text of the play. This has taken us two weeks, but we have decided after much discussion to look at certain scenes in improvisation in the coming weeks.
We are now just about to start the rehearsal process proper – and I just can’t wait!
Gerry Lucas (Director)
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