Performed reading of a new play by Emma Whipday

14 February 2016
Great Hall, Strand Campus, King's College London
Part of 'What you Will: King's Shakespeare Festival'

Review by Rebekah Baker, BSc Adult Nursing

Emma Whipday and Asia Obsborne’s performed reading of ‘Shakespeare’s sister’ transports its audience into the hustling, vibrant, wretched world of Shakespearean London, teaming with religious tension and political intrigue. We follow the consummate lead, Judith Shakespeare, from her improvised beginnings in Stratford to the very edge of ‘tripping across the boards’ in the Rose theatre.

Judith carries a taunt yet bold energy through-out the performance, her facial expressions alone convey a wealth of emotional depth. Although she is obstinate in her refusal to bow to societies consigned roles for women, she never seems imprudent how she voices her opinions. Judith’s pleas are delivered not with tremor of whining child, but with the maturity and intelligence of a young woman.

A reflection of the quality of the writing and acting is that although the props are minimal and the actors visually reading from a script, by the end of Act 3, the audience has been completely immersed into Judith’s world. Where there are props they used are used with discretion and subtly to enrich the character’s performance. For example the tiny addition of a pencil sticking out of Judith’s back pocket, a flash of rebellion in a greyscale world of oppression.

Physical movement of the actors is often used in lieu of props, but this always seems spontaneous and blends seamlessly. Petty violence is commonplace and often used as the preferred method of controlling women, both by relatives and the state. Flashes of humour are interspersed within the performance, but these are often double-bladed and sting with a cruel irony.

With such an immersive performance from the lead, lesser actors would be lost, but the supporting cast is equally strong. In particular Joan, Judith’s rival turned ally, holds a candle all her own and matches the lead in her ability to ensnare the audience, with a twisted ironic smile or a possessive glare.

The tightly woven noose of society’s expectations is ever present and is enforced by the males of the piece, sometimes under the guise of love, at others motivated by a simple desire to control. Judith’s own cycle of degradation is enforced chillingly by the use of the same actor to portray her father and a Solider of the crown; who both beat her for disobeying society’s norms. William Shakespeare himself makes brief appearances, used effectively as a foil of Judith to highlight the stark differences of opportunity between the genders in 16th century England.

Originally conceived from Virginia Woolf’s musings on the doomed life of ‘Shakespeare’s Sister’, a woman who attempts to follow the dream of writing a play in Elizabethan England. Emma Whipday fashions Woolf’s proposition into a vision of the lively, raucous world of the 16th century theatre, in which a woman, no matter her talent, could only live at the outer edge. The play masterfully affirms that indeed a woman’s body is compatible with a poet’s heart, but also challenges the audience to remember those woman of our past whose voices were silenced before they could speak.