Award winning Red Room was based on Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber. The performance explored the archetypal 'Bluebeard' myth. Drawing on cinematic images from A Streetcar Named Desire, Rebecca and Gaslight. A four-strong male ensemble of Tennessee William’s ‘Stanley’ intice the audience into their Red Room, where they play piano, croon, and drink milk. A new young wife is drawn into their world, she has neither the experience or knowledge to see that what she perceives as love is not but something more malevolent that will destroy her. The production portrays the potent archetype of Bluebeard as the predatory and destructive aspect in relationships. A journey to womanhood and the necessity for her to trust her ‘knowing’ intuition, in order to know what love is and isn’t.
Awarded Grand Prix -Best Performance, Best Director at Teatralny Koufar, MInsk Belarus.
Lauren Gauge won Best Leading Actress in Russia.
Director: by Mary Steadman
Costume Design: Cathy Kelly
Performers/Devisers: Lauren Gauge, Rose Balfour, Rachel Wilson, Megan Fitzgerald, Matthew Ferdenzi, Joshua Ellis-Barnard, Drew Toynbee, Suneil Bolton
Audience feedback:
I can still clearly remember the images coming alive on the stage after years. In Red Room, she mixes the theatre with a slight choreographic approach but in an invisible way. One cannot feel the border between dance and theatre in Red Room and this is brilliant. The performance must be seen several times. Surely recommended. Jury Member Belarus: Mehdi Farajpoor, Artistic Director for ORIANTHEATRE, Paris 2013 (www.oriantheatre.com)
Let's just say, like everyone else, we were very impressed by the quality of the show from Bath, Red Room, which has certainly earned her awards! Robert Germay, Director TuRLG, Liege, Belgium