A few years ago, Bristol Old Vic
hosted a family show called Hey Diddle Diddle in which the characters from
beloved nursery rhymes are set free. Well, in Death & Treason, Rhyme &
Reason the same company (Twisted Theatre) takes those same characters one step
further in what can best be described as the very opposite of a family friendly
show.
Many people know that the Ring A
Ring O’ Roses rhyme was inspired by the millions of grisly deaths at the hands
of the plague, but did you also know that Mary, Mary Quite Contrary was about
the troubled reign of Mary Queen of Scots and her inability to produce an heir?
Or that Pop Goes The Weasel is apparently about the deaths of the working
classes from poverty-induced hunger?
In Death & Treason you
revisit these well-known characters from your childhood, but they’re not
looking quite so rosy cheeked or blooming as they did when you sang their
stories in nursery school. The origins of nursery rhymes are in dispute and
there are no definite answers, but the Twisted Theatre group brings to life
some of the suggestions and sets them to a brand new score of heyday nightclub
music (with a backing band of violin, viola, cello and many types of
percussion).
Led by enigmatic Australian Nuala
Honan, the group engages in a playfulness and interaction that, while clearly very
scripted and rehearsed, is reminiscent of the abandoned glee of the nursery
school… with an added delightful darkness. The recurring refrain of “dead eyes
see for seven seconds” has the brilliant coda of Nuala’s eyes maniacally
spinning around her sockets like a demented Victorian doll.
The Brizzle version of the Jack
and Jill rhyme is a highlight… recounting Jack’s cider-induced seduction of
Jill in the apple orchard via the medium of spoken text messages and SMS slang.
The death of Jack in the original rhyme bears a more poignant meaning in the
Twisted Theatre version… with calamitous repercussions for poor Jill. And while
on face value the Brizzle tones could be thought to play to the Bristol Old Vic
audience, one version of the origins of the story refer to it being inspired by
the 1697 events in a Somerset village when a local spinster becomes pregnant
after her amour falls down a hill and dies after smashing his head on a rock…
and her own subsequent death in childbirth. It’s all a lot less jolly than you
thought it was, eh?
It’s fun trying to work out which
original nursery rhymes the Twisted Theatre versions are playing to, and in some
cases I couldn’t figure it out. So it would have been good to have a signpost
in the narrative to help locate the new songs in memory and time. Because of
this confusion, it felt like we were at times presented with a formless
collection of enjoyable sleazy music and performances, but one that was
somewhat dislocated due to not having the context in which to put them.
But ultimately? Death &
Treason is silly, but it’s fun.
Death & Treason, Rhyme &
Reason is performed at the Bristol Old Vic until 10 May. For more info, please click here. The show is also touring around the South West in September and
October. For more info, please click here.
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