Burton Taylor

Tuesday 1st December – Saturdy 5th December, 9.30p.m.

“This was a chamber that was not only bloody but splattered with semen and saliva and strewn with regurgitated sausages, the occasional amputated penis and a commendably-lifelike severed head.” Finola Austin ★★★★★

“a complex piece has been further complicated by the director’s response to it” Madeleine Woolgar ★★★★★

The Bloody Chamber ★★★★★

Review by Finola Austin

The programme for Angela Carter’s ‘The Bloody Chamber’ at the BT informed us we were entering at our peril and, although the resemblance to the writer’s short story may not always have been so obvious, this warning proved to be something of an understatement. While the red lighting and brimming communion chalice seemed in little need of further explanation, the studio was soon awash with gory puddles and discarded corpses. This was a chamber that was not only bloody but splattered with semen and saliva and strewn with regurgitated sausages, the occasional amputated penis and a commendably-lifelike severed head.

This all seemed unnecessarily explicit, but, not being overly given to squeamishness, I could have let it go – yet the onstage sex acts and partial nudity were a little more difficult to avoid. What had started with some promise – our attention grabbed by the in media res approach and Chloe Orrock’s varied delivery in the opening scene – rapidly descended into a post-watershed Gothic fantasy. We had bloodily violent  genital stimulation, (forced and consensual) lesbian erotica, a half-naked virgin whipped while sprawled across the altar – watching the play felt like intruding on a rather personal sado-masochistic fantasy and, judging from the uncomfortable shuffling of those around me, not many found the more shocking moments enjoyable viewing.

The presentation of sexual violence wasn’t in itself the issue – it was the seemingly gratuitous nature of it all. The plot was lost somewhere along the line in the catalogue of disturbing scenes – the anti-sexism/homophobia message was drilled home but what exactly had just happened remained a mystery, perhaps due to director Matthew Monaghan’s rather loose adaptation.

This was a play so dominated by its, admittedly well-executed, gruesome images (Jonathan Turnbull’s rendering of a boy having his eyes gauged out being particularly strong), that a lot of other points got lost along the way. Problems with plot were exacerbated by the, at times, unintelligible speech of the actors – emotions reached such a fever pitch that I could only identify the occasional phrase, mixed in with the swear words.

This was a pity as the actors were well-coordinated with the music and in set group pieces; they seemed to know their characters and were always reacting to each other. ‘The Bloody Chamber’ isn’t without merit, especially if you enjoy this sensationalist style of theatre, but the production team would benefit from exploring with as much enthusiasm the subtler side of theatre.

The Bloody Chamber ★★★★★

Review by Madeleine Woolgar

Matthew Monaghan’s production of ‘The Bloody Chamber’ attempts to immerse the audience in sensations which cause the audience to feel how cultural constructions of gender and sexuality impact upon people’s experience of love. This intriguing statement in the Director’s Note led me to anticipate a more complex grasp of cultural constructions than was displayed in this production. The audience is bombarded with swearing as the various characters inflict judgment and punishment on those deemed to have sinned through transgressive behaviour. The problem is that the bombardment on the audience’s senses requires a variant of intensity otherwise the onslaught of language and violent threats become meaningless. Towards the end, a character standing once again amongst the dead and dismembered looks at the audience and utters the single word “Shit”. Your instinct is to laugh due to this being a drastic understatement of the entire situation.

There is a confusing lack of consistency in the message that the director is attempting to portray. I suspect that a complex piece has been further complicated by the director’s response to it. The Duke condemns trangressive sins while simultaneously gaining pleasure through observing them. This highlights hypocrisy perhaps, but also actively confuses what is already a fractured message. Monaghan claims that the play attempts to find a sphere in which women and gay men can be free in their sexuality. The plays oppressive anti-trangressive stance means that these figures never glimpse hope of such sexual freedom. The lesbian lovers are crippled by fear of being discovered whilst the boy declares himself incapable of being loved and full of self-hatred of his sexuality. These characters end up both mutilated and killed, concluding a rather negative outlook for homosexuals in the modern world represented by the chamber. I searched for depth amongst this condemned transgression, but the outlook was only bleak.

This is not helped by the actors who for the most part act one emotion through great junks of text causing the audience to visibly switch off part way through long speeches. For such language to carry meaning, the audience needed not to have become numb to it. If there was more to this statement of cultural consciousness it was not conveyed to the audience. The actors needed to carry through characterization with conviction, such as a character proclaiming to have broken legs whilst visibly using her legs to maneuver herself about the floor. The Duke likewise got his sleeve caught on another character’s hair and gently untangled himself, breaking any belief in the violence.

I will credit the conviction with which the cast threw themselves into such a production, the content and staging takes considerable courage. My suspicion is that the Monaghan had a more succinct vision of the play than he managed to bring out of his actors. The only way to bring out the subtext (which one hopes exists in a piece in response to Angela Carter’s tale) requires the director and actors to find and bring out the nuances of the violence. If this cast were able to do this, they would have an intriguing piece of theatre on their hands.