Boudica

On a warm Summer’s evening an audience was gathered in the open air at an ancient archeological site to watch and listen to the story of Boudica and her fight against the Romans.

Performing in the open air presents one or two problems, apart from the weather, what can be done about a set, entrances and exits for the cast, do we have a sound system, what about lighting etc.? Peterborough Mask had selected a reasonable flat position within this archeological site with suitably positioned trees and the ability to have floodlighting installed behind the seated audience. These were put to good effect with coloured lighting combined with the sound for the battle sequences.  I’m not sure where the speakers were situated but the sound of the original score which was well composed and performed, together with sound effects came across loud and clear throughout the play. Dialogue was particularly clear although early on a softer voice blew away on the breeze.

I was grateful for the informative programme which listed all the scenes and their locations together with a map showing locations so that I was able to follow the progression of the play quite easily. The play opened with a prologue given to us by Emma Dear as Andraste, who was well costumed and made up, she spoke clearly introducing us to the story and appeared at times throughout the play. The character of Boudica, Queen of the Celts was particularly well performed by Helen Naylor, whether it be with her daughters and their relationships, great interaction and reaction with her fellow Kings / Chieftains and then the Roman Officer and the Procurator. Good interpretation of the strength of character, great dialogue, well played in both the flogging scene and the battle scenes. She was well supported by her daughters Blodwynn – Summer Moeed and Alonna – Olivia Napier, these two actresses well displayed the two differing characteristics working well together and other members of the cast, particularly with Helen, good clear dialogue, good movement and stage spatial awareness.

The tribal Kings were well presented by Matt Dear as Cunobeline and Carl Perkins as Badvoc, quite different characters, one as more of a mediator and peaceable, the other as a loud and blood thirsty warmonger. Their aims of fighting and removing the Romans and supporting, or not, Boudica were clearly shown, great clear voices and with Carl a good portrayal of a loud belligerent character.

They worked well together and contrasted greatly with the Romans, Andy Stroud as Suetonius and James Venters as Procurator Catus. Andy exuded the authority and seriousness of the Officer with great stage presence, while James brought humour to his role as the procurator, also well displaying his cowardliness. His portrayal in the Feasting Hall at Camulodunum was well done. These two also had good clear voices and could be clearly heard. There were also good performances from Laurette Watson as Clothen, Dave Slinger as the Druid and Phoebe Fuller as Sylvia. There was a small company comprising of Amy-Lee Harris, Emma Picknell, Phoebe Fuller, David Holborn, Charles Sayegh and Helen Reece who made up the Roman soldiers, some roles were doubled, they all worked well together and gave good volume and fullness to their scenes.

There was good colourful and effective make-up for the principals, really good costumes, well fitting and appropriate to the different characters, the ripped costumes and make-up for the flogging scene. Props were authentic as were the weapons and shields used for the battle scenes, these scenes were well choreographed for the fight sequences, although my personal feel was that the fights were quite tame. The language of the play wasn’t exactly straight forward and the cast coped extremely well with Roman and Celtic names.

This was an interesting interpretation of a 2000-year-old story based on the writings of Roman historians Tacitus and Cassius Dio and was well told and well performed, congratulations to director Ben Stroud and the Company.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.