Wyrd Sisters

Before I start I must confess that DIscworld and the stories of Sir Terry Pratchett have somewhat passed me by, and never really been my cup of tea, so recognising that such confessions are almost heresy in that cult world I apologise if I missed the subtlety and references of the plot. The basic plot is of course Pratchett’s take on the Bard’s Scottish play and a passing nod to Hamlet, with three witches, an evil Duke and Duchess who have murdered the previous king, the murdered king’s ghost, a troupe of travelling actors, a playwright called Hwel (Will- get it?) and a whole load of other ‘wyrd’ characters which appear throughout.

The stage, managed by Phil Briggs, (when not on stage as a dead king) was set to blacks, or should I say grey/green with the wings as entrances and one entrance rear stage left, at one point cleverly used to depict a doorway that had been smashed to pieces , with various hanging boards on rope which were reversed  to either blend in with the backdrop or depict the various scenes, court, wood, town etc. Simple but effective. The stage crew were certainly kept busy with twenty plus scene changes throughout.

Lighting designed by Paul Alexander and sound by Pete Keeley seemed to work for me, but I was informed it was a new board that was still bedding in and still somewhat had a mind of its own. I certainly didn’t notice if it did.

Costumes by Sue Breach were well sourced and appropriately medieval and silly where required, which was a lot of the play. With lots of doubling up of parts the changing rooms would certainly have been busy.

The centre of this play are of course the three witches, Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and the apprentice Magrat Garlick, excellently played by Sue Chaplin, Sue Breach and Sandra Messenger. I have to say, after what seemed to me a fairly low key start, they grew on me enormously as the play progressed and each fully established their character.

The evil Duke Felmet (Simon Wells) and his Duchess, Lady Felmet (Nicola Ferguson) played evil with a fair amount of comic input as they embarked on their efforts to prove they hadn’t murdered King Verence I, by commissioning a play, and the very experienced Simon Alaluf plays the Fool despatched to find a playwright and company to perform it. My favourite scene, and to my mind the funniest is where he is attacked by the three robbers (Mike Alison, Adrian Page and Rick Davis – all of whom each doubled up as at least two other characters) who then negotiate how much they will rob from him.

Rachel Morrey was a lovely cameo as a gender neutral Tomjohn, who turns down the throne in favour of an acting career despite all the witches have done to hasten his coronation by moving time forward by 18 years.

Tony Lockwood (good to see him back on stage again) and Clare Page (who also played one of the witches) played the Vitollers who own and run the travelling theatre, The other two actor witches, wrongly mistaken for the Wyrd sisters, were played by Mary Chatfield and Judith Smith - must have been the superb make up by Caroline Bell!

Other cast members include Sally Dring as Gumridge and a peasant and Matt Rowson as Hwel and various soldiers and guards.

I didn’t quite get the pace of this play, I personally though it was a little slow at times with cues not being picked up quickly, but talking to a couple of fellow audience members during the interval, obviously experienced Pratchett fans, they loved the pace, so as I said earlier, it may be me missing the Pratchett style of presentation..?? That said director Fran Ross has a good grip on proceedings and even to a total Pratchett novice like me this was a good evening’s entertainment. Thank you and well done ADHOC.

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