Written by Molly Windust
Directed by Ivan Hamshaw Thomas and Gracie Davie
Review by Marina Funcasta
A young woman runs onto the stage wearing a white dress, torn and muddied. She looks dazed, her hair is wet – there is a sound of the ocean, somewhere.
The lights go up. She smiles. Suddenly we are in a kitchen, learning about the time she made her husband fish pie. Or, as is subsequently clarified, she tricked her husband into thinking she made him fish pie.
Molly Windust is a charming writer, and even more charming performer. The script flows with a humour reminiscent of Miranda July, and a story that wafts Victorian perfume. An increasingly hysterical, isolated wife, obsessed with maritime trinkets, locked in domesticity and struggling to cope with the hormonal, painful realities of her body? It’s hard to believe that between the Jane Austen revivals, the genre remains so relatable.
And yet, Windust captures the spirit of our thwarted heroine with wit and lightness. Well-paced, Ivan Hamshaw Thomas and Gracie Davie strike a well-balanced match as co-directors, punctuating our performer’s comedic flourishes with weight and solidity. The script also embodies this, dramaturgically shaped by Laurie Bayley-Higgins, so as to hint towards pain in a way that feels disarmingly real.
This humanity is ultimately, however, a credit to our leading lady. Windust fuels her performance with vulnerability and care, treading lightly on her anecdotes (which fleshout her relationships with other characters in poignantly nuanced ways), performing a character whose timidity is hard not to equate with her existential and physical fragility. Nevertheless, in an energising ending sequence, we are left with reasons to hope – for novelty, for growth (and maybe for a revival!). Watch this space.
One To Watch
Rockpools by Molly Windust was performed at Shedinburgh at The Young Vic
Review by Marina Funcasta (contact@corrblimey.uk)
Marina is halfway through an English literature degree at Edinburgh University, wherein she has been (considerably) involved in the drama scene: enjoying performing with their Shakespeare Company shows, but also modern takes on Arthur Miller. However, Marina’s interests are wide-ranging under the theatre genre – enjoying abstract, more contemporary takes on shows (with a keen interest in Summerhall)
