Theatre / Reviews
Review: The Étienne Sisters / dirty butterfly, The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic – ‘A bold double bill that showcases some truly impressive acting talent’
Bristol Old Vic Theatre School’s annual Summer Festival continued yesterday evening with an ambitious double-bill which paired Ché Walker’s The Étienne Sisters with debbie tucker green’s dirty butterfly.
It is with Ché Walker’s The Étienne Sisters that proceedings commence. Billed as ‘a play with songs’, the story centres on three sisters in the immediate aftermath of their mother’s death.
Tree (Akua Mensah) serves a protectorial role in relation to her sister Ree (Mirelle Gipson), with whom she lives. Mensah’s Tree is embittered by grief, and anguished by her mother’s last word: Oban. This small Scottish coastal town once played host to a family trip with the third, and half, sister Bo (Tobi Grace).
This play is fundamentally about the various ways in which grief and trauma shape a person. Tree has grown too old too quickly, perhaps resenting a period of carefree youth that never presented itself. Ree, on the other hand, has become rather shrunken and diminished and consequently naive and resentful. It is Bo, the most charismatic and troubled of the sisters, who drives the plot forwards and whose arrival might be considered its inciting incident.
The cast do extremely well in managing a tricky assignment. Mensah’s tormented Tree, Gipson’s child-like Ree and Grace’s explosive Bo are captivating characters, performed brilliantly. Whilst the songs prove at times challenging for the cast, the emotional heart of this story is communicated very effectively by the actors.
tucker green’s blistering debut dirty butterfly follows after the interval. When this play premiered at Soho Theatre in 2003, it made apparent to all paying attention that tucker green’s was a necessary and urgent voice.
This script is another tough assignment, for different reasons. The interweaving dialogue, so dependent on timing, and visceral depictions of domestic abuse ask this cast to rise beyond their years. And they do.
The play follows neighbours Amelia (Elise Ria Harrison) and Jason (Nathaniel Abdo), who live either side of Jo (Violet Harvey). Jo is experiencing ongoing domestic abuse, sandwiched between two neighbours who hear her cries through thin walls.
Amelia is disgusted and paralysed by her own complicity, and descends into an unbelievably callous state of victim-blaming. Nathaniel, meanwhile, listens compulsively to both Jo’s sex and to her abuse, with a suggestion that he is engaged in an audio-“peeping”, deriving both concern and pleasure from what he hears.
It is against this almost unspeakably bleak backdrop that this young cast must operate. Harrison’s Amelia is a deeply troubling and troubled figure. Abdo’s Jason is a basically pathetic and weak man who successfully disquiets his audience. As Jo, Harvey is heartbreaking.
This bold double-bill makes for an excellent showcase for all the actors involved, and crystallises all of the training behind them.
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Bristol Old Vic Theatre School Summer Festival is at The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic between May 21-June 13; there are four double bills in successive weeks, with shows at 7pm on Thursday-Saturday, and an additional 1.30pm matinee on Saturday.
Tickets are available at bristololdvic.org.uk, and shows are recommended for ages 14+.
All photos: BOVTS (main photo: The Étienne Sisters)
Read next:
- Bristol Old Vic Theatre School prepares for its annual Summer Festival
- Review: Deposit / Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again, The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic – ‘A cracking evening of theatre’
- Review: Foxfinder / The Effect, The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic – ‘A superb double bill showcasing a raft of talent from BOVTS’
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