THEATRE REVIEW: ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER
- Posted on September 8, 2007 10:18 PM
- 2 comments
Old Vic, Sept 7th
All About My Mother is a stage adaptation of the 1998 Spanish film by Pedro Almodovar. The transition from screen to stage can sometimes be an uncomfortable one that sits awkwardly with its audience, but, All About My Mother, however, would exceed the opinions of a film critic. The relationship of mother to child is explicitly deepened on the stage and bought to life with a ferocious lashing of reality.
It covers an extensive range of women, all of whom are struggling with their own inner turmoil. We meet a nun, a transsexual, a lesbian, a drug addict, an artist, and a nurse, all dealing with various forms of pain, issues and untold secrets.
The Old Vic’s luxuriant velvet curtain whooshed open and displayed a dark and simple set. This performance was obviously not concerned with clever scenery, flashy lighting or indulgent costumes. Instead, it relied heavily on exuding professional and precise acting that the audience could absorb and be touched by.
We are sombrely greeted with a tragic beginning in which Manuela’s (Lesley Manville) earnest son Esteban is killed in an accident just after he desperately tries to probe Manuela about his estranged father. Lesley Manville’s howl of agony vibrated around the Old Vic, causing a shuddering audience to be stifled by Manuela’s loss.
As time drifts by, Manuela goes back to find Esteban’s father, all the while trying not to grow close to anybody else and in turn keeping the door to her past closed. It is though this journey that we are introduced to all the characters she meets along the way.
Soft flecks of humour dot their way through All About My Mother producing a balance between emotion, pain and light comedy. The regular appearances of the dead Esteban did not fail to engulf Manuela in her own grief, keeping the sympathetic audience connected to the story. Similarly, the various scenes of A Street Car Named Desire that flicker throughout AAMM were consuming, adding a certain sparkle
Diana Riggs, a lesbian actress, who plays Blanche in Street Car and her junkie ‘friend’ who plays Stella both proved to be a graceful and interesting characters. They were heavily contrasted by Agrado, Manuela’s transvestite friend, who seemed slightly out of place but nevertheless, pretty funny.
The mother-child theme is ever prominent between the young Sister Rose and her sceptical artist mother. Rose struggles, like the average child, to tell her mother the truth – which is that she has been impregnated by a transvestite and is now H.I.V positive. And I though I had problems.
- Zarina Raja
Tags
All ABout My Mother Review Old Vic allaboutmymother Diana Rigg the old vic theatre THEATRE REVEIW
Comments (2)
Kate Spiegelhalter
What a succelent review...almost as much as Diana herself.
Posted on September 21, 2007 10:29 AM
David Jordan
A brilliant tour de force in which the whole cast are led through a series of scenes by a well disciplined and dedicated team of backstage staff who silently and efficiently change the sets in a seamless flow.
Posted on November 22, 2007 3:07 PM
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