We’ve all heard of Midas and Darwin, Faust and Freud: but what part did women play in the lives of these mythological or mythologised males? This solo show, devised from Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry and performed by the charismatic Linda Marlowe, conjures an alternative, feminine viewpoint on some well-loved stories. Structurally, it’s repetitive; but, under Di Sherlock’s direction, it seduces with a riot of vivid imagery and a firework display of virtuoso acting.
The setting hints at domesticity, the traditional domain of the female, with props piled in a laundry basket. Witty video animations illustrate each tale: mist curls through the woods for Little Red Cap’s encounter with a sexually voracious wolf; an eclipse darkens the star-studded sky over Herod’s kingdom.
Marlowe, sinuous in black with piercing eyes and snow-white slender arms, embodies each character with shape-shifting skill. As Queen Kong, she transforms her slight form into that of a loping giant ape, hairy, roaring, lovelorn. She swaggers as one of the twin Kray sisters, glamorous Cockney feminist terrorists making London’s streets safe for women; she flutters as a Southern Belle Circe; and she diminishes into an ugly knot of denial, horror and defiance as the Moors Murderer Myra Hindley — a female for once more famous, and because of her gender more reviled, than her male associate.
Marlowe is famed for her work with Steven Berkoff, and the relish of visceral, rhythmic language evident in that collaboration is very much to the fore here. Duffy gives her plenty to play with. The poems ooze sensuality as the verse splashes about in blood-red betrayal, rage and passions that fail to endure. There’s the intense eroticism of the Quasimodos’ bells, with their brazen curves and melodious, penetrating tongues; there’s the fairytale loveliness of the description by Beauty, wed to her Beast, of the moon as “a hand mirror breathed on by a queen”. And then there’s the bitter, desolate realism of Mrs Faust, here one-half of a driven career couple: “I came to love the lifestyle, not the life/ He came to love the kudos, not the wife.”
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As theatre, it has formal limitations; but Duffy’s writing is deliciously rich, and Marlowe’s interpretations will have you licking your lips.
Box office: 0844 8717627, to Feb 6