Theatre Review - THREE TALL WOMEN - PEOPLE'S THEATRE, NEWCASTLE

 

A strange, yet brilliant, play written by Edward Albee. We start off in the bedroom of an elderly woman in her early nineties (exact age being up for debate) with her nurse and a woman sent in to monitor her paperwork. She tells them different things about her life as both of them consider ending up like her. The younger bookkeeper thinking that’s not where she is headed, as the middle-aged nurse seems to have accepted the grim inevitability that this is how we all end up. The older woman flicks between lucidity, reminiscence and the distress of confusion. The second half shifts to being inside her mind. As her son sits at her bedside, the three ages of the woman discuss her life. The 26-year-old self seems disappointed by what is to come, while the middle-aged version is already exhausted and jaded by the weight of life. This is balanced nicely with the older version, who looks on with apathy and acceptance of who she was. The three seem to subvert image of maiden, mother and crow, as we are reminded not all mothers are the ‘maternal type’. She is all of these women and none of them. She is the woman that time, life and her choices created - not necessarily likeable, but a ‘Tall Woman’ nonetheless. A deeply satisfying play executed magnificently.

Director Hugh Keegan creates an often intense production with many moment of wry humour. The set design of a simple but sumptuously furnished bedroom by Claire Leighton and Tim Swinton really sets the scene. The lighting and sound (also designed by Tim Swinton), highlighted the characters intense emotions and, at times, reflected memories with projected pictures on the walls, changing with the main character’s stories. Charlie Hope plays the simple silent role of Young Man well. As to the three main actresses, this show was a very tall order, with all three on stage for most of the play. Add to that the enclosed nature of the studio theatre it is performed in and you realise how gifted these three woman are, holding the audience in the palm of their hands at all times and always maintaining character. Kath Frazer played A, who slipped between the different memories of who she was and melting the audience’s hearts with outbursts of confused frustration. Sara Jo Harrison was B, a hypnotic performance as the sardonic fifty-something. Alison Carr, as C, brought out the naïve, almost child-like hope that our futures will be happy.

A fine piece of intimate theatre that reminds you to look closely at your own life, Three Tall Women is at the People’s Theatre, 31^st May - 4^th June2022.