Wyrd Sisters

Wyrd Sisters  is taken from the book by Terry Pratchett which was the 6th book in his  Discworld series. It  was  adapted for stage by Stephen Briggs, being first performed in 1991 and is a take on Shakespeare’s Macbeth.  The plot tells the story of a wicked Duke and Duchess, who had murdered the King. The King’s baby is smuggled away to safety by the witches and is brought up with Mr & Mrs Vitoller  in a travelling theatre.   The witches weave their magic and save the Kingdom from destruction.

The three main characters are the witches and were all well cast. Each were brilliant with their very different, individual characterization but who all worked well together.   Lynda Phillips plays the older dominant, powerful, decision maker, Granny Weatherwax.  Emma Marsh played  Nanny Ogg, a  ‘down to earth’ jovial,  comical and bawdy character, smoking her pipe which was  an inspired touch to complement her character. The third witch is Magrat Garlick played by Jo Chadwick. She gave us a lovely portrayal of the younger, innocent witch, who is still learning her craft, and who falls passionately in love with the Court Fool (Joseph Marsh).  This part is just perfect for Joseph, a natural comedian who played the part with energy and enthusiasm. 

The ghost of the dead King Verence is played by John Chapman, a suitably vague character who looked good as a ghostly figure.  He had been killed by the evil Duke of Lancre  (Craig Fisher) who was to be always haunted by the sight of the blood on his hands.  Cassandra Fisher was his wife, Lady Felmet who  captured the character of this very strong, evil and dominant women. Her husband is slowly going mad  and  she takes charge of the situation to ensure that they rule the Kingdom no matter what.  The rest of the cast and ensemble all worked well to support the principals.  

The play opened with some suitable background music and with effective title credits projected onto a backcloth.  It was such a shame that it was not possible for all the scenes to be created this way thereby cutting down on the number of physical scene changes but I gather this was not a practical possibility.  With 23 scene changes the pace was unfortunately, completely lost.  On a positive side however the cauldron looked very impressive. The costumes, all supplied by the in-house wardrobe department looked excellent and complimented the production well, as did the lighting. I also loved the artwork for the programme front cover; excellent work by Gareth Ewing.

Despite my comments there were obviously quite a few Terry Pratchett fans in the audience who thoroughly enjoyed the production and expressed their appreciation at the walk down; so well done all.

Once again, thanks to SODS and David for your usual hospitality and I  look forward to seeing your next show,  Half A Sixpence in July. 

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