Blue Beard directed by Emma Rice for Wise Children - Tour

[bordeaux]

This seems to be starting in Bath and going Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham and York.  It's been a while since I saw something of hers but this certainly has potential.  

[bordeaux]

Could a mod please change the title to Wise Children, not Wild Children? Sorry.

[TallPaul]

Possibly coming to a theatre near YOU...

BLUE BEARD THE MAGICIAN MAKES HEARTS FLUTTER AND PUPILS DILATE. WITH A WINK, A STROKE AND A FLICK - THINGS JUST SEEM TO VANISH. CARDS, COINS, SCARVES… AND WOMEN.

A Wise Children, Birmingham Rep, HOME Manchester, Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh and York Theatre Royal co-production

Adapted and directed by Emma Rice

Bluebeard meets his match when his young bride discovers his dark and murderous secret. She summons all her rage, all her smarts and all her sisters to bring the curtain down on his tyrannous reign.

Emma Rice brings her own brand of theatrical wonder to this most beguiling and disturbing of tales. With her signature sleight of hand, Blue Beard explores curiosity and consent, violence and vengeance – all through an intoxicating lens of music, wit and tender truth.

When someone tells you not to look, OPEN THE BLOODY DOOR!

[Dave B]

London venue with tickets going on sale to Wise Children Club members to be announced 'next week'

Dates so far are:

Bath Theatre Royal – 2nd February – 10th February

Manchester Home – 13th February – 24th February

Theatre Royal York – 27th February – 9th March

The Lyceum, Edinburgh – 12th March – 30th March

So April somewhere in London, West End, smaller?

[curiouskc]

I'll be seeing this at HOME. After Wise Children and Wuthering Heights I am devoted to seeing anything Emma Rice directs.

[fossil]

Oct 11, 2023 21:58:39 GMT curiouskc said:

I'll be seeing this at HOME. After Wise Children and Wuthering Heights I am devoted to seeing anything Emma Rice directs.

If you haven't seen it yet, her Shakespeare's Globe production of A Midsummer Night's Dream is still available in iPlayer.

 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001npy4

[curiouskc]

Thanks for letting me know! I've only been following her since Wise Children, so I've not seen this.

[zahidf]

bac.org.uk/whats-on/blue-beard/?utm_source=BAC&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=14164762_Wise%20Children%20announcement%20-%20General&utm_content=Blue%20Beard&dm_i=1FDE%2C8FLLM%2C7ECGKL%2CYTF2J%2C1

On at the Batterssa Arts Centre next year

[fossil]

Just booked my tickets for the BAC and noticed the E-tickets say "This performance is relaxed...".

After initially cursing myself for not noticing this when I booked the ticket I checked again and found towards the bottom of the show page it says:

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
All performances will be Relaxed. We invite you to make yourself comfortable and move around if you need to and if you need to leave the performance at any point you will be allowed to return to the space when you feel ready.

Turns out that this applies to all performances of everything they put on at the BAC.

[zahidf]

Oct 18, 2023 19:09:47 GMT fossil said:

Just booked my tickets for the BAC and noticed the E-tickets say "This performance is relaxed...".

After initially cursing myself for not noticing this when I booked the ticket I checked again and found towards the bottom of the show page it says:

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
All performances will be Relaxed. We invite you to make yourself comfortable and move around if you need to and if you need to leave the performance at any point you will be allowed to return to the space when you feel ready.

Turns out that this applies to all performances of everything they put on at the BAC.

Yup it's been like that for a while

[threeletteracronym]

Any feedback yet? I'm seeing this next week in Manchester, looking forward to it.

[david]

Feb 15, 2024 17:43:05 GMT threeletteracronym said:

Any feedback yet? I'm seeing this next week in Manchester, looking forward to it.

I’m there for this Saturday’s matinee so I’ll post my thoughts on it. 

[curiouskc]

I saw it last night in Manchester and loved it. Another intoxicating magical fable from Emma Rice. Lovely to see several of the cast members from Wise Children back in this one. This is a very Angela Carter-esq retelling of the Blue Beard folktale and definitely the most musical Rice show I've seen. In Act 1 especially there's more singing than speaking and the cast are all terrific vocalists/musicians. Like the Guardian says, it has a very cabaret show feel.

One thing I wasn't prepared for at all was the twist that comes in the final fifteen minutes. Throughout the Blue Beard retelling, there's also a separate story of a brother and sister that weaves in and out. I couldn't predict how the two stories would eventually connect, but when that moment came I had chills all over and the whole audience fell into a stunned silence till the end of the show. Hold onto your hearts, because it's devastating.

My fourth Wise Children show and as ever, I can't wait for what they do next.

[david]

A few thoughts from yesterday afternoons visit to Manc HOME to watch this. With a runtime of around 2hrs with a 20 minute interval this latest offering from Emma Rice was very much a mixed bag for me. From the foreword in the play text available to buy from the box office (£10) as a QR code was available for a free digital programme (you have to sign up to the wise children site to access it), Emma noted that she didn't like the original Blue Beard tale as it glamourises the serial killer of women in the story rather than putting the women's stories front and center. In her version, she wanted to correct this and shine a light on their stories. 

In this version we meet the sisterhood of the fearful, f**ked and furious (a sisterhood that has very much Tarantino vibes than the Call the Midwife nuns) who is led by Katy Owen's brilliant feisty and witty Mother Superior who also acts as a narrator to the piece and helping to link the interweaving stories that are told through asides and some pier-side jokes to the audience.

In the contemporary story we meet an endearing young man played by Adam Mirsky who is looking for his lost sister played by Mirabelle Gremaud whilst concurrently we get the Blue Beard story. Tristan Sturrock as the villain of the play plays Blue Beard with the right balance of charm, slime and evil to become a menacing individual. 

The stories are told through some catchy songs from Stu Barker as well as some terrific acting and vocals from the cast and with Emma's usual theatrical flair (with some magic tricks chucked in for good measure) there is plenty to keep you entertained. This production is part musical, part gig and part play. With all the music played live by some of the cast members there is a nice electric mix of songs from jazz, rock and some acoustic numbers they certainly added an extra layer to proceedings. 

With a sparse set from designer Vicki Mortimer mainly consisting of 3 different sized wardrobes, the stage strangely didn't seem that empty thanks to the onstage presence of musical instruments.

Act 1 whilst certainly a fun one with plenty of humour there is a dark undercurrent of horror and evil that bubbles quietly that is comes to the fore in a darker Act 2 with a chilling and sobering end. The use of pre-recorded video projected onto a screen at the end amplifies this. The issue I had was that the production seemed disjointed by the end of Act 1 I couldn't see how the contemporary story and the Blue Beard tale would come together and made for a bit of a head scratcher interval but it is in the last 10 minutes that really give this production some real emotional punch as the 2 stories come together to bring home the powerful message that Emma is trying to get across and certainly hits home after the case of Sarah Everard. 

[aingidh]

If anyone is in the Edinburgh area, the code Beard5 can be used for a £5 discount on the Lyceum website

[Someone in a tree]

Booking is open for Battersea Arts Centre

[Steve]

Saw this tonight and LOVED it. I agree with the positive sentiments above.

This is excellent Emma-Rice-style storytelling, blending comedy, music, horror, showmanship, community and an overall positive vision for humanity.

Think Moulin Rouge meets the Bluebeard fairytale.

I liked this better than Wise Children and Twelfth Night, marginally better than Bagdad Cafe and Romantics Anonymous, and about on a par with "Brief Encounter," which I also LOVED.

The only Emma Rice shows I've seen that I'd rank above this are "The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk," "The Red Shoes" and the amazing "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

A key magical ingredient of the latter was Katy Owen's hysterical, impish Puck, and she is the magical ingredient of this production as well.

Some spoilers follow. . .

Bluebeard is a serial killer of women, so you'd think that's more up Alfred Hitchcock's alley than Emma Rice's, but Emma Rice has a habit of finding light in the dark, and as far as serial killer stories go, this is as light as it gets.

Katy Owen is an absolute hoot as the raspy, chippy, blurty, eccentric, irrepressible, comically thin-skinned, blue-bearded compere of a Mother Superior! She gets some wonderfully humorous lines and nails them better than anyone else could. At the same time, as is appropriate for a story about women in danger, at one point we get to see something a bit more rare, a dead serious Katy Owen, and that had some serious bite.

Anyhow, this is a very entertaining rendition of the Bluebeard tale, with most of his evil thankfully reserved for backstory. Tristan Sturrock is fabulously diabolical as Bluebeard, channeling the panache of a young Jim Broadbent.

Also, among the ensemble, Adam Mirsky sings beautifully as a mysterious young man, who also makes an excellent sincere foil for Owen's comic shtick, and as the mother and two daughters who fall under Bluebeard's spell, Patrycja Kujawska, Robyn Sinclair and Stephanie Hockley are dynamic and entertaining singers and actors.

All in all, this is great fun, with an effective sting in its tail as well.

4 stars from me.

[duncan]

Dear goodness its got the Rice faults - LET THE WORDS BREATHE, yet again its a production smothered in movement and action and bloody ribbons!!!

It comes across as a Director who doesn't believe in the actual play so 19 things must be happening on stage at the same time to divert your attention. t was OK but its smothered in business that for me detracts from the actual story. The last Emma Rice production I'd seen was A Matter of Life and Death (which starred a couple of cast members here) and that too suffered from people with ribbons and acrobatics and nonsense. 15 years later and this was more of the same.

And you are right about the ending - the last 10 minutes are a massive change of tone and it doesn't pull it off satisfactorily. The boy/sister plot is very peripheral so to pivot to them as the finale and the way the story goes are clearly a comment on modern society BUT we've just spent the last 110 minutes watching something that has made exactly the same point but in a far better way.

I did ponder on the way home if it would work better without the video and instead having the climax be done on the stage with the actor involved and then adding in the actor playing Blue Beard as the other person in the video (trying not to spoil).

I also had to read up on the legend of Blue Beard to find out what actually happened with the key and why she just didn't clean it and hang it back on the glitter ball as the reason for it still being covered on blood either wasn't clearly explained or it passed me by.

.....and I thought Katy Owen was absolutely terrible - worst performance I've seen in decades, though I suspect its been smothered in Rice.

....and with my bad back there is no way I'd be going in the box for the sawing thew women in half trick.

I'd say a 5 out of 10 but with potential to be better if Emma Rice wasn't using her usual bag of tricks.

Also disappointed we didn't get to see any of his pirate career 

[indabe]

Saw it tonight. Performances were good, with some catchy songs.
Felt too much was going on, too many tricks and unnecessary use of ribbons and props. If I see one more screen used in a production I’ll be tempted to walk out, in this instance it just wasn’t necessary and added a sub plot which seemed tacked on to the end.

[Dave B]

So much all over the place. I like a lot of the cast but just so much going on. The change of pace at the end didn't work for me, I can see how it might impact (as it did for others) but I just found it out of place with the production. Tie it all back in together and it might have worked better.

[max]

Apr 27, 2024 22:23:17 GMT Steve said:

Saw this tonight and LOVED it. I agree with the positive sentiments above.

This is excellent Emma-Rice-style storytelling, blending comedy, music, horror, showmanship, community and an overall positive vision for humanity.

Think Moulin Rouge meets the Bluebeard fairytale.

I liked this better than Wise Children and Twelfth Night, marginally better than Bagdad Cafe and Romantics Anonymous, and about on a par with "Brief Encounter," which I also LOVED.

The only Emma Rice shows I've seen that I'd rank above this are "The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk," "The Red Shoes" and the amazing "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

A key magical ingredient of the latter was Katy Owen's hysterical, impish Puck, and she is the magical ingredient of this production as well.

Some spoilers follow. . .

Bluebeard is a serial killer of women, so you'd think that's more up Alfred Hitchcock's alley than Emma Rice's, but Emma Rice has a habit of finding light in the dark, and as far as serial killer stories go, this is as light as it gets.

Katy Owen is an absolute hoot as the raspy, chippy, blurty, eccentric, irrepressible, comically thin-skinned, blue-bearded compere of a Mother Superior! She gets some wonderfully humorous lines and nails them better than anyone else could. At the same time, as is appropriate for a story about women in danger, at one point we get to see something a bit more rare, a dead serious Katy Owen, and that had some serious bite.

Anyhow, this is a very entertaining rendition of the Bluebeard tale, with most of his evil thankfully reserved for backstory. Tristan Sturrock is fabulously diabolical as Bluebeard, channeling the panache of a young Jim Broadbent.

Also, among the ensemble, Adam Mirsky sings beautifully as a mysterious young man, who also makes an excellent sincere foil for Owen's comic shtick, and as the mother and two daughters who fall under Bluebeard's spell, Patrycja Kujawska, Robyn Sinclair and Stephanie Hockley are dynamic and entertaining singers and actors.

All in all, this is great fun, with an effective sting in its tail as well.

4 stars from me.

One of the Emma Rice productions I've enjoyed most. I really liked 'The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg' in Leicester, before it bombed in the West End (earlyish central role for Cynthia Erivo). 

In 'Blue Beard' I wanted more rounded characterisation from the brother/sister story strand  - particularly the daughter who'll become the centre and reason for the other strand.  As a young woman gigging in local pubs and clubs (a vulnerable one woman band) she wasn't even honoured with getting through her entire gig song. Intentional I'm sure, to show her striving unheard and undervalued. Implicates the audience in that lack of care, misogyny even, but I'm not sure the production itself needed to hold her three-dimensional life away from us.

But the music was often great, Katy Owen funny and then chastening in the rug-pull story moment. Pre-show, the gathering geeky specs-wearing ensemble made me think: 'oh no, not the "we are your storytellers" thing yet again', but here there really is a reason for them to band together, highly motivated to tell this story for themselves more than us even. One of Emma Rice's best integrated pieces of storytelling, with all her elements folded in and building. Well, a few stray strands, but that's the carnival style from her earliest Kneehigh outdoor theatre days.

[Someone in a tree]

I found this to be really moving and very powerful. The first act at times dragged with perhaps one song too many. However the payoff in the 2nd worked wonderfully. Great theatre, thought provoking and moving.

It was also my first time to BAC which i also thought was great.