Review: Maudie's Rooms @ Sherman Theatre
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Maudie's Rooms, Sherman Cymru, April 2014
At the beginning of last week, I was fortunate enough to have been invited to experience (and it is an experience) Roar Ensemble’s Maudie’s Rooms, a co-production with Sherman Cymru.
I am of the opinion that with a production such as Maudie’s Rooms, the less known about what you will be met by the better. However, this makes writing a review incredibly difficult, and so while I will endeavour to limit the content revealed here. Allow me to make a suggestion; go and watch the show before reading any further.
Although the performance would be in no way ruined by prior knowledge, I feel that it is strengthened by a lack of it and so if you are the kind of person that can buy tickets and wait on that basis alone, I’d encourage you to do so.
Still here? Well then, let’s head on in to Maudie’s Rooms.
Taking place at a secret location in Cardiff Bay, we are met by Professor Arlo Butterworth in a public space (much to the confusion of several passers-by), who explains to us that he has just run away from his own wedding, not because he has doubts, but because he feels he has unanswered questions in his past. Fortunately though, of course, the rest of the spectators and I were on hand to accompany him in answering said questions as we travelled to the home of his youth just a short distance away.
I should mention, from the first few minutes of the show, it becomes apparent that this is a show aimed predominantly at children and families, but not in a way that excludes an adult audience – far from it.
From the moment we stepped inside Maudie’s Rooms into the wonderful (and often genuinely creepy) hallway, embellished with a plethora of curio’s, memento’s and objects of interest, you could tell that this was something special. The detail and thought that had gone into make this old abandoned space come to life was breathtaking and I think I was just as drawn into the atmosphere as any of the children were.
A particularly creepy feature was ‘Arnolfini Spillini’, a seemingly Mexican Dia de Muertos (or Day of the Dead) inspired fortune teller who instigates a series of bizarre visits back in time to Butterworth’s childhood memories.
We are lead through each of Maudie’s rooms, where we meet past inhabitants of the establishment, such as Mrs Sweetpea; a kooky gardening enthusiast obsessed with growing herself a husband, Young Arlo; the childhood incarnation of our protagonist, Mary Butterworth; Arlo’s weak and easily-influenced mother, Mimi & Lilith; two incredibly creepy ventriloquist dummies, Titus Spicketts; the show’s antagonist and villain, Solomon; a world-weary sailor, Teppo; an old, tragic soul who is troubled by his past, and, of course, Maudie; the warm-hearted landlady and mother figure to Arlo.
Many of the actors within the performance played a variety of roles both brilliantly and with comic effect (two of the male actors playing a pair of cross-dressing nurses is a good example) and it felt natural for them to be doing so as we hurtled through what I felt was probably a warped and fading memory of the events of Arlo’s childhood.
The thing that impressed me most in Maudie’s Rooms was the way that accommodating the younger audience and portraying real thought-provoking scenes were balanced. A particular stand out moment for me was the time we spent in Teppo Kollowitz’s room, as the troubles and horror of a Jewish childhood in Europe were teased out by an unwitting Young Arlo.
There were several moments such as this where I utterly lost myself in the storytelling, and this is testament to the beautiful surroundings and the care taken by each of the cast members to create immersive and surreal performances.
In addition to this, there was also a strong message to children to let your imagination run wild sometimes. There was a particularly heart-warming scene where Solomon and Maudie teach Young Arlo how much fun you can have by letting yourself go for just a little while.
A quote that stuck with me in reference to Young Arlo (and all the young people in the audience) was that ‘No one ever grew by being measured', which I felt was a particularly nice piece of writing.
As writer and director of the show, the lion’s share of the credit lies with Louise Osborn, with whom I had the opportunity to speak briefly, and her passion and belief in creating theatre for young people/communities was evident in herself and her work.
Maudie’s Rooms runs until April 26th and tickets can be purchased for £8 individually or £28 for a family ticket, via this link to the Sherman’s website.
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Image Credit: Sherman Theatre website
1 Comment – Post a comment
A.primus
Commented 22 months ago - 14th July 2014 - 09:56am
this is very intersting