*Lyttelton, London*
Roger Michell directs a fine cast in Harley Granville Barker’s once scandalous play
Harley Granville Barker’s Waste was banned in 1907 for its scandalous content. Henry Trebell, an independent politician, bringing in a bill to disestablish the church, makes his lover, Amy O’Connell, a married woman, pregnant. When she dies as the result of an abortion, his career is imperilled. One of the challenges of making this play a success is that Trebell (crisply played by Charles Edwards) is so overbearing, one doesn’t care whether he lives or dies. Olivia Williams’s Amy is more sympathetic, a combination of cowed and defiant. The play reveals (not an unfamiliar idea) that politics is a separate language, with no bearing on a man’s private life. It is at its most invigorating on the subject of how and whether women are heard. Sylvestra Le Touzel is especially impressive as Trebell’s sister: forthright yet obstructed.
It is at its most invigorating on the subject of how and whether women are heard
Continue reading... Reported by guardian.co.uk 18 hours ago.
Roger Michell directs a fine cast in Harley Granville Barker’s once scandalous play
Harley Granville Barker’s Waste was banned in 1907 for its scandalous content. Henry Trebell, an independent politician, bringing in a bill to disestablish the church, makes his lover, Amy O’Connell, a married woman, pregnant. When she dies as the result of an abortion, his career is imperilled. One of the challenges of making this play a success is that Trebell (crisply played by Charles Edwards) is so overbearing, one doesn’t care whether he lives or dies. Olivia Williams’s Amy is more sympathetic, a combination of cowed and defiant. The play reveals (not an unfamiliar idea) that politics is a separate language, with no bearing on a man’s private life. It is at its most invigorating on the subject of how and whether women are heard. Sylvestra Le Touzel is especially impressive as Trebell’s sister: forthright yet obstructed.
It is at its most invigorating on the subject of how and whether women are heard
Continue reading... Reported by guardian.co.uk 18 hours ago.