THE INSANITY OF MARY GIRARD

THE INSANITY OF MARY GIRARD

Chelmsford Theatre Workshop at the Old Court

29.01.13

Lanie Robertson's 70s piece is a fictionalized treatment of a true story; the message, as so often, is that people in the past [18^th century Philadelphia] had much to learn from their more civilised descendants. Not much of a basis for history, but it does make for a powerfully dramatic polemic. An unstable woman is incarcerated in an asylum, purely on the word of her husband, who, she says, is threatened by her love of life and the freedom of her mind.

Kelly McGibney's bold staging opens with the unfortunate Mary in our midst, strapped to her "tranquillizing chair". Harsh lighting spills onto the "polish of the fine wood floors". Soon she is surrounded by five Furies – other inmates or figments of her fevered imagination ? - crouched and crawling around her, cowled to hide their faces, taunting and teasing her with cruel guessing games. Excellent physical work from this ensemble, who also play key characters from Mary's back-story, as she summons them to her cell. We share her disorientation and her sensory deprivation, since the voices come from the statue-still Furies, but the action is mere shadows, excellently brought to life on a distant screen. Plato's cave, perhaps. I loved the way the Furies dissolve back down to the floor at the end of each visitation.

A challenging piece, not without its longueurs, but when taut writing and physicality come together, as in the Prayer/Key sequence, it is exciting, dangerous theatre.

Well served by a fine, mostly young, company, working hard to keep the impetus alive, with poor Mary played intelligently, touchingly, without histrionics, by Hayley Kemp, making her CTW début in this rare revival. The piece ends, provocatively, with her returning to the chair, embracing her fate, eagerly awaiting the Sabbath spectators as the church bells peal out in the darkness.

The Assistant Director was Danny Segeth, with Catherine Hitchins as Movement Consultant.

upper-arm tattoo of the Tranquillizing Chair by Jeff Johnson