The talented team at Sewell Barn have once again demonstrated their ambitious confidence with their latest staging, After Electra, written by April De Angelis in 2015. This well written play is unusual in giving several strong roles for older women, four out of the eight distinctive characters. It gives space to examine themes about family life often seen as women’s or feminist issues, but that really affect all of us. It certainly gives the notion of family values a right workover.

The basic premise of the play is a real gut punch at the start of proceedings. Virgie, played with a steely determination by Susan Newstead, is holding a party for her close friends and family to celebrate her 84th birthday. She has lived the Bohemian life of an artist who put her painting and pleasures before her responsibilities as a parent. As the guests gather she tells them to enjoy themselves as she plans to commit suicide at the end of the evening.

First to arrive is her estranged daughter Haydn (Mandy Kiley) who had been taken into care because of her parent’s neglect. Haydn has been unable to form stable relationships, doubtless damaged by her unsettled upbringing.

Tom (Kevin Oelrichs) is an actor, and turns up with his writer wife Sonia (Jane Boor). They have endured each other for years but are at the openly hostile stage of their breakdown. The playwright devises many humorous lines from their bitching. Next to join is the forthright sister Shirley (Glenda Gardiner), an ex headmistress now in the House of Lords who has a predilection for bossing people about.

Mid way through the party is joined by Virgie’s errant alcoholic son Orin (John Turnpenny) who is preoccupied with his own relationship breakdown. Two more characters complete the set, a taxi driver called Roy (Ian Shepherd) who has a rather closer involvement with the family than we might expect, and finally towards the end of the play a former student of Virgie’s, Miranda, (Sarah Haines) turns up to champion her legacy.

With such a diverse bunch on stage there is no shortage of drama and there are many unexpected twists and turns. It is a long work, possibly a bit too long for a hard bench on a cold night, but holds the audience’s attention throughout.

 Susan Newstead and Mandy Kiley both give authoritative performances as the mother and daughter thrown into conflict by Virgie’s insistence on killing herself. Kevin Oelrichs has a great time in the energetic and demanding role of Tom, a suitably brash and outgoing resting actor who is something of a philanderer. His duties include an impressive acapella rendition of the Nina Simone classic “Ain’t Got No…’ which includes one of my favourite lines in any song (’got my liver’) which Kevin yields with appropriate emotion. Jane Boor is convincing in her depiction of his angry and put upon spouse Sonia in a role that requires perfect timing for full effect.

Glenda Gardiner’s Shirley does not go full on Trunchbull but gives the distinct impression that she could if she wanted and if she didn’t have to try and behave as a member of the House of Lords. The whole cast are skilled in their creation of a very broad range of distinctive characters, and whilst the family dynamic is definitely quite strange I can honestly say that I have come across a real person uncannily similar to each and every one depicted in this performance just in Norwich! 

As ever the set design really hits the spot with wide range of props that are just right for Virgie and her family. Clare Williamson has given confident direction to this big work and looked rightly proud at the end of the first public performance. 

The timing of this play at Sewell Barn happens to coincide with the important public debate about a possible assisted dying bill becoming law and it encourages us to develop our own perspectives on this tough issue. While the subject matter could be seen as difficult the play is not, it has lots of humour and some great one liners and is delivered with zest and enthusiasm by this talented ensemble. A play to enjoy and then talk about for many days to come.

©Julian Swainson, Norwich Eye Thursday 21st November 2024

After Electra plays at sewell Barn Theare 21-23 & 27-30 November at 7.30 pm with a Matinée at 2.30 on the 30th. Go to www.sewellbarn.org for tickets and information

 

 

 

Below – bonus link to the best version of ‘Ain’t Got No…’ by Nina Simone: