Pride and Prejudice

by Jane Austen

December 6 - 9 2000

adapted by Constance Cox

Directed by

Joan Bearman

That chance will any such young man stand when he moves into the neighbourhood of mothers with daughters in want of a husband!  Follow the story with the help of:- 

Macbeth

by William Shakespeare

September 7 - 9, 13 - 15 2000

Directed by

 Tony Brownings

"Well, what is Wick's Macbeth going to be all about?" wrote Director Tony Brownings.  "There is no single 'right' way of thinking about or performing Macbeth.  It has been hugely popular for almost four hundred years and has been performed many thousands of times in very different versions.  Millions of words have been written about it since Shakespeare's time.  It is impossible to reach a final answer to the question 'what is Macbeth all about?', because the play works on so many different levels.  A multitude of interpretations are possible - all with a claim to truth.  The play is a kaleidoscope.  Every time it is performed or read it reveals different shapes, patterns, meanings and interpretations.

Our Macbeth will be a play that is accessible to all that see it.  A fast moving action packed murder story. For those who want to see more, I hope they will find a study of a murderous mind.  A play of social and political realism and a play of illusions, showing the effect on human beings of the mysterious or supernatural.

I have been working with Richard Porter, Dave Comber and Mike Medway on the staging and feel to, our production and we have come up with, what we think is an exciting and innovative setting."

Rumours

by Neil Simon

July 5 - 8 2000

Directed by

Betty Dawes  

Son of Man

by Dennis Potter

April 5 - 8  2000

Directed by

Derek Fraser

Dennis Potter has also been called controversial.  In Son of Man he portrays a very Roman Jesus, with all His doubts and frailties as much, if not more than, His divinity.  The title Son of Man [rather than Son of God] suggests this.

Son of Man is in no way sacrilegious, but there is no cut and dried certainty as to the divinity of Jesus.  Like all god plays we are left to judge for ourselves.  Son of Man was first presented on TV in 1969.  The ending was ambiguous but the stage version ends on a triumphant note.  It is a powerful and challenging piece of theatre, worthy of Wick. 

Bob Ryder gave a superbly commanding and passionate performance in the role of Christ, illustrating the ongoing struggles He faced to win the hearts and minds of the people while challenging the military minds an church.  David Goodger gave a strong portrayal of tyrant Pontius Pilate while Brighton actor Dennis Evans [Caiphas] displayed the unease within the established church of the time to a tee.  

Potter wrote the play in 1968 while suffering a crippling illness and, in many ways, his remarks that it was born through the resulting 'richer sense of religion' rang true for all to see.  Rols ham-Riche skilfully provided onlookers with a glimpse into the turmoil Judas suffered while doting disciples Peter, Andrew, James and John were convincingly played by John Garland, Simon Druce, Peter Thompson and Kevin Isaac respectively.  Son of Man was indeed rendered unmissable, thanks to a host of solid performances from the supporting cast.

"In-House"

Jan King

Derek Fraser is to be congratulated on a tremendous achievement and for the guts to tackle a piece which could have gone seriously pear-shaped.  It's wordy, with a difficult subject, Jesus, about whom everybody has an opinion; it could have been embarrassing, as well as dull and static.  Instead, the audience were the recipients of a beautifully played and paced piece of theatre sustained by an electric energy that clearly demonstrated what the Wick are made of.

The problem of visual interest in a talky play was solved by the imaginative use of variegated blocks which, from where I was sitting, took me several minutes to realise made up a giant rake cross laid at an angle.  It was a masterly piece of set design by Judith Berrill, and it gave the actors plenty of surfaces to crawl up, sprawl over, stand on, sit on and stride over, while forcing the audience to keep in  mind where all this was ultimately leading.  This was enhanced by a further piece of inspired simplicity in an up-stage and off-centre scrim, lit from behind in a variety of shades [and occasionally used as a protection screen], and by a life-sized hollow hanging figure in a crucified pose stage right, with all its inner workings cleverly suggestive of blood vessels and skeleton - a human being literally laid bare - the theme of the play.  The music, by Katalin Szeless, economically used, added some lugubrious foreboding with its bass single notes and seemed just right, as well as appropriately ancient [at one point, however, I did strongly suspect the inventive use of an underground train!].

None of this would have helped if the acting had not been up to snuff.  But clearly Derek Fraser knew that with such a cast pool he could afford to attempt this difficult play with the high odds that it would work.  There was not a single weak performance and a wealth of strong ones, Adrian Kenward's Agitator, whom I took to be John the Baptist, gave a forceful, high voltage performance, once more demonstrating his versatility.  Pilate, the astute politician driven to distraction by his realisation that the Romans cannot fight anything as powerful as an idea, was played with sophistication but agitated ennui by an commanding David Goodger in an impeccable white jacket.  I also particularly liked John Robinson's military commander, a polished, beautifully honed performance that epitomised smug sense of Roman [read British] superiority.  Dennis Evan's Caiphas was the soul of academic and perplexed high priesthood, distraught with responsibility and hidden hope.  And Rols Ham-Riche's Judas in his white suit, the priesthood's willing pawn who has not remotely grasped the nature of Jesus, was the epitome of well-meaning complacency, all the more tragic in his unawareness of what he was about to set in train.

The presence of Ruth, the humble but proud Jewish slave, added a disturbing touch of sadism to Pilate's fears of Jesus when he beat her in the massaging scene, and was played by Joanne Hopper with stoical dignity.  Procla, Pilate's wife, was a different role for Hazel Stams, who succeeded in creating a character and in looking delectable at the same time in her green gown.  Her presence came as a visual shock in an almost entirely male cast.  John Garland's practical, truculent and occasional gormless Peter, and Simon Druce's more credulous, biddable and occasionally gormless Andrew made a delicious foil for the scene where Jesus begins His ministry with the fishermen; yet not once did they fall into caricature.  James, played by Peter Thompson, was a study in exasperation and final horrified understanding of Jesus' anguish.  John, played by Kevin Isaac, the first and second priests, played by Peter Milner and Diane Robinson, Alistair Reed's soldiery centurion, and Jasper Astle's money-changer all brought a professional single-minded concentration to their roles.

But the play, however excellent the leading and smaller roles, must stand or fall on the strength of one central performance - the title role.  Without it, nothing else will be credible either.  Bob Ryder's many-faceted talent has never shone more brightly than in this most difficult of roles.  Of Course, it is an actor's dream.  In Bob's case, it was a dream well lived.  His performance was a masterly blend of subtlety, passion and exquisitely focused control.  Was Jesus nuts or was He divine?  The play doesn't answer that question for one theatrically powerful reason:  Jesus doesn't know either.  From that premise comes a Jesus who alternates between conviction and the agonised streams of consciousness of a man already on the cross of doubt.  Bob Ryder's Jesus laid bare the sheer anguished horror of supreme responsibility, the torment of being utterly human - and therefore limited, driven to the edge of madness by self doubt.  He caught the engaging simplicity of Jesus' background as  a working man [the light  Northern accent was just right for such a parochial backwater as Galilee]; he caught the bewilderment, humour, warmth, rage, terror, power, of a man trapped with a sense of destiny He is not sure is His.  In His "Love you enemies" speech - if speech is the right word, since it is anything but speech-like - He took the working man's common sense to an extreme of logic against human folly, catching the fervour of  a man who ignited the imagination of thousands.  the words are the author's.  But the accolade for communication are the actor's.

The one [small] fly in the ointment [well, I have to find something wrong with it!], was the oft repeated appearance of the poor pros lady, whose profile moving across the rose lighted scrim symbolised ..? a props lady removing an altar candle.  For me, it did disrupt the otherwise seamless atmosphere.  This clever clogs would like to suggest that perhaps it could have been removed by exiting actors, although I am  sure various possibilities were discussed;  and the set in darkness looked lethal.  I kept expecting to hear actors hurtling into the void.  carrying a large candlestick as well suggests the sort of injuries inflicted in the Spanish Inquisition!

The play is a modern medieval mystery play, with Potter clearly connecting the carpenter, the woo-bearing tree and the cross.  Jesus walks out of the pages of the New Testament to confront us in disturbingly relevant, contemporary terms.  He is even in modern dress.  We can hardly fail to grasp the point.  Jesus' search, on a smaller scale, is also everyone's search for identity in a world where we do not seem to fit or cannot be sure our lives mean anything at all.  This was wick's landmark production.  It will stay in my mind a long time.  What a shame it could not have been put on in Easter week!  Congratulations to all involved.  And thank-you.  It was a very special evening.