Wyrd Sisters

Wyrd Sisters is the sixth of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels. The play was adapted by Stephen Briggs for stage performance.

The play is based on William Shakespeare’s (the local lad for Phoenix Players!) ‘Macbeth’. It has several ingredients of this well-known play for example – three witches, a wicked duke and duchess, some rather silly soldiers, the ghost of a murdered king and therefore a land in some peril.

The three witches are at the centre of the play. Margot McCleary superbly played the central role as Granny Weatherwax along with Karen McDonald as the rather vulgar at times Nanny Ogg and Freya Boardman as the apprentice Magrat Garlick. The three of them all very different characters worked well together with some good chemistry between them to save the country from its awful fate.

A baby child is given to the witches who in turn hand him to a couple from a travelling theatre company and hide the crown in a props box. One day they believe destiny will take over and Tomjon, later played well by Luke McDonald, will defeat the Duke taking his place as King. The problem with this plan is they need to wait fifteen years!! Therefore, they plan to cast a spell over the kingdom and freeze it in time.

However just before this Duke Leonal Felmet played by Adam Clarke along with Katie Cheery as Lady Felmet send their fool played by Baz Stilinski  to recruit some actors and a playwright. Clarke played a lovely part as the Duke with the forever increasing damage to his right hand brought on by using knitting needles and a cheese grater. There were similar good characterisations by both Katie and Stillnski. Again, these characters worked well together. 

As the actors begin their play those playing the witches are arrested. The real witches cast a spell to find out how the king was killed, and the Duke falls to his death.

There were other good performances not least from Graham Robson as King Verence and Fiona Robson as a Demon. The cast overall worked together and brought about an entertaining evening.  

I think the cast may have diverted from the script a couple of times but nevertheless the action continued so well done for managing to keep going!

Technically this was not the easiest piece of drama to undertake especially at this venue due to the number of scene changes – twenty-three in total and the lack of space back stage and no wings. The changes were carried out effectively, but I did wonder whether some scenes could have had items left on, maybe down stage, to avoid everything going on and coming back off again.  These are but minor comments as overall this was a cleaver and demanding piece of drama. 

As always thank you for your warm hospitality and I look forward to seeing Treasure Island at the end of January 2019. 

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