The Yellowchair Performance Experience: Home

Rosalind and the Bear

In 2005, having worked for about nine months at the Rosemary Branch as stage manager and lighting designer for various plays, Hugh asked the artistic directors if he could direct something there during the summer period. Having his original choice turned down (SW19 by Lloyd Evans,whose work has since been performed at the Kings Head Theatre) Hugh settled on a double bill of Rosalind by J M Barrie and The Bear by Chekhov.

The plays complement each other in regards to their ideas, about looks and status not being everything, and the difficulty in second guessing other people's motivations. These were themes Hugh has always been very interested in, and featured heavily in TaJ and Pretty Boy. The political background in which Rosalind was written (England in the early twentieth century) was very similar to that of The Bear (Russia in the eighteen nineties) but the two writers are diametric opposites. Whilst both write in an exaggerated form of archaic speech, which modern readers often mistakenly consider to have been the style of their times, Chekhov did it to make the audience uncomfortable, whereas Barrie did it to shock.

Not so much now with the release of Finding Neverland, but there were also many misconceptions about Barrie as a very upbeat person, and putting Rosalind aimed to show his more cynical side to those who grew up knowing him from Peter Pan. Likewise, Hugh aimed to remind people that Chekhov was the proverbial life of all the parties, even though he is currently remembered more for tragedies, such as Uncle Vanya and The Seagull.

To highlight the common themes of the pieces, as well as to make use of theatrical effects (to be discussed later) Hugh had originally cast the same three people in both plays. This meant changing the role of Looka in The Bear to that of a female, but this had the advantages of allowing Smirnov to appear nastier for yelling at her, and gave Popova a chance to let down her guard.

Hugh has often been asked about the choice of order the two plays were put on. Other than The Bear & Rosalind sounding awful, and the fact that Rosalind & The Bear implies a child's fairy story, which would be proved further from the truth as the performances progressed, Hugh had very specific aesthetic reasons for always putting Rosalind first.

Seeing an actress playing a maid (Looka in The Bear) is more pleasant/ironic for an audience, immediately after seeing her as a spoilt manipulative character (Mrs Page in Rosalind). Likewise, it is more interesting to see an actor play someone who loses his temper (Smirnov in The Bear) after seeing him as the placid, butter-wouldn't-melt, deferential Charles in Rosalind. Finally, it feels more just to see Popova stuck in her own home non-stop for seven months, having just play Dame Quickly who is very rarely in her own home. Also, I believe that Popova is the kind of lady which the Dame would have liked to let herself become.

From a technical point of view, the chosen order is easier, as there were less props used in The Bear so it means a quicker turn-around in the interval (as less things need to be set before the show can start) and it also means the audience need not leave in the interval if they do not wish. Likewise, Mrs Page was on when the audience enters, and it is harder to pre-set a person in an interval.

My final reason for the chosen order related to the costume design. The clothing in The Bear was more lavish than that for Rosalind. Thus the evening got more "over the top", as the plots and the gestures do. Likewise, the costume Mrs Page wears as Beatrice (at the end of Rosalind) needs to take the audience's collective breath away, with all other costumes in that piece looking dowdy. The image would not be as powerful, if the audience had seen the fancy costumes of The Bear prior to this moment.

The actors chosen for the roles were Will Tosh, Sara Dee and Barbara Joslyn. Click here to see the original press release

However, in the middle of the rehearsal period, Will felt he was not right for the roles and needed to be replaced. At such short notice, it was not possible to find someone who could portray both Charles naivety and Smirnov's worldly manner, so a different person was found for the Barrie play (Michael Redston) and the Chekhov (Stiofan Lanigan-O'Keeffe).

Pictures by Elodie Negrilotti

The intimate space of the Rosemary Branch Theatre was the setting for this double bill of classic plays, although dealing with some similar themes the tone of each play was very different.

The end of Rosalind left me with a sense of pity and sorrow at the shallow nature of thee characters existence but my mood was soon buoyed by the upbeat comedy of The Bear

Rosalind is a rarely performed play which highlights the superficiality of a woman (the actress) who relies on the praise of others to have any feeling of self worth along with that of a young man who in his naivety is so easily impressed with what is presented on the surface.

The Bear is a short comedy which finds two people's initial hatred of one another transform into passion and love, again highlighting the difference between what is revealed and what lies beneath the surface.

Both plays were performed in one act, the set design and costume reflecting the mood and period of each piece, of note was the sparse set of The Bear which was a perfect demonstration of the recently widowed Popova's empty life.

Each play was a three hander - 2 females and 1 male, the cast of four played all the roles which showed their versatility as a company.

The performances were confident, clearly audible, with good pace and energy on stage but I think perhaps as a result of this there was a lack of subtlety and a sense of rushing, hopefully this will resolve as the run progresses and the actors will build on some nice moments of interaction which were particularly evident from Barbara Joslyn in The Bear.

White Snipe continue their run at The Rosemary Branch Theatre until 28th August this is a good opportunity to see 2 classical and diverse pieces on one bill.

The above was copied from a review, written by Karen Welsted for UKTheatre.Net, repeated here with thanks.

Hugh would like to reiterate that it was his company, TYPE, that produced the show. The mistakenly credited White Snipe is the name of Michael Redston's company.

More information about the directing of the piece, as well as reviews from The Stage and What's On (which gave the show Five Stars) will be uploaded shortly.