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Synopsis 18th-century London, noisy and chaotic. Bedlam - the city’s ancient hospital for the insane - is under the influence of Dr Sidney Carew for whom profit and lechery come before prevention or cure. But with the arrival of a lovely country girl and the appointment of a more enlightened governor, Carew’s inhuman regime starts to crumble, along with his own sanity. With a cast of doctors, patients, poets, Christians and cannibals, and set against an anarchic backdrop of binge drinkers and ballad singers, Bedlam is an asylum for lust, rage, comedy, song and romance. Kings and Rogues Season
Nell Leyshon made history last week (9 September 2010, previews from 5 September) by becoming the first female playwright to have a work staged at Shakespeare's Globe, in either its old or new incarnations.
Her play is Bedlam, which continues in rep until 1 October and presents a fictional portrayal of a London hospital for the insane.
Set in 18th-century London against an anarchic backdrop of binge drinkers, gin sellers and ballad singers the production promises "dance and song with scenes of lust, violence and absurd comedy."
So did critics go mad for this theatrical milestone?
Michael Coveney on Whatsonstage.com (three stars) - "There’s none of the disturbing, outlandish theatricality of the Marat/Sade about Nell Leyshon’s perfectly enjoyable, simple scenario, nor too much wackiness or ferocity along the lines of Ken Campbell’s long ago The Madness Museum on television ... Instead, Jessica Swale’s tasteful staging on a bare boards setting is decked out with ballads and old songs ... Treatments have progressed from roast mice and exorcism to laxatives and leeches, but a happy conclusion – and signature Globe company hoe-down – is ensured once the liberal- minded governor (Phil Cheadle) gets the message and adds compassion to the list of prescriptions."
Paul Taylor in the Independent (three stars) - “Leyshon has previously been noted for delicately devastating small-scale pieces. With Bedlam, though, she goes for broke in the opposite direction, turning the Globe into a chaotic madhouse and filling it with slapstick energy and blackly gleeful exuberance ... Watching Jessica Swale's rambunctious production, which is ebulliently performed by a delightful company, I was frequently assailed by a sense of incongruity: a play that deals with the inhumane treatment of the mentally ill is in constant danger of lapsing into an upbeat crowd-pleaser ... The gin-sodden Hogarthian background is beautifully conveyed ... But the determined, high-spirited foolery has a sanitising, feelgood effect. As with the contents of those bedpans that are cheerily emptied over the punters in the yard, you can't quite believe that any of this is real.”
Michael Billington in the Guardian (two stars) - "Nell Leyshon has written poignantly about country life in plays such as Comfort Me With Apples and Glass Eels. But her new commissioned piece, though not without historical interest, offers a strangely sanitised view of London's notorious 18th-century asylum for the insane. You feel that Leyshon, in providing scope for song and dance and sentimental romance, has almost too conscientiously come up with a Globe crowdpleaser ... The play is at its best when Leyshon focuses, all too briefly, on attitudes to mental health problems ... Even director Jessica Swale underplays the noise and squalor of the period. And it strikes me as crass to invite an audience member to come on stage for a bit of token madhouse humiliation."
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph (four stars) - "To write a play about the notorious Bethlehem lunatic asylum in London, where the patients were treated with often horrific cruelty and the fashionable used to visit to gawp at their antics and distress, is an enterprise fraught with difficulty ... Leyshon, best known for her small-scale, deeply felt plays about rural life, charts a middle course with skill and sensitivity ... Jessica Swale directs a lively production, with a host of winning performances and a terrific selection of popular songs from the period, including one spectacularly filthy ditty that reaches a truly riotous climax ... It’s a winning, good-hearted evening, but one does leave wondering whether a play about madness, cruelty and suffering should be quite as much fun as this."
Henry Hitchings in the Evening Standard (two stars) – “One expects drama set in an asylum - where beatings are frequent and ailments are treated with leeches - to be gruesome but Leyshon has accentuated the comic side of confinement ... It’s chaotic, rambunctious and at times saucily amusing. Jessica Swale’s production strives hard to involve the audience: groundlings may well find themselves spattered with various fluids (all, of course, just water), and the space is well exploited ... Greater problems lie in the material. Although Leyshon has crafted some nice lines, there’s little to engage us closely ... In treating madness largely as a spectacle, it ends up as a sprawling creation which fails to illuminate the mind’s dark spaces.”
Patrick Marmion in the Daily Mail (three stars) – "Madness ... also needs method on stage. Nell Leyshon’s sprawling play about the 18th-century ‘Bedlam’ asylum pulls in too many directions ... There are bawdy drinking songs, horror at the practice of applying ‘mustard blisters’ to patients after a cold bath and some philosophical reflection. But the action remains at the level of busy spectacle without a strong story to draw you in. It’s high-spirited, however, with sharp work from Finty Williams as a bossy society gal, and Ella Smith deliciously lives up to her description as ‘a sauce box’.”
The first new play by a female playwright to be presented at Shakespeare’s Globe, old or new, is a restrained foray into madness – good idea – in a fictional early 18th century asylum run by a bigoted, drunken lunatic and his deranged son.
There’s none of the disturbing, outlandish theatricality of the Marat/Sade about Nell Leyshon’s perfectly enjoyable, simple scenario, nor too much wackiness or ferocity along the lines of Ken Campbell’s long ago The Madness Museum on television.
Instead, Jessica Swale’s tasteful staging on a bare boards setting is decked out with ballads and old songs, outings to the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens (fan dancers, acrobats and a dancing bear) and St Giles (think Hogarth’s “Gin Lane”), and a thwarted love story between the waif-like, red-haired farm girl May Garnett (beguiling newcomer Rose Leslie) and her West Country sailor boy, Billy (Daon Broni).
An effete poetaster (Sam Crane) and his decorative Gardenia (Finty Williams) are embroiled in Arcadia, and the large and lovely Ella Smith as an all-purpose low-life doxy spreads a thin layer of grease over the proceedings.
Treatments have progressed from roast mice and exorcism to laxatives and leeches, but a happy conclusion – and signature Globe company hoe-down – is ensured once the liberal- minded governor (Phil Cheadle) gets the message and adds compassion to the list of prescriptions.
Came out feeling short changed. As a devotee of the Globe, I was spoiled by the brilliance of Trevor Griffeths 'A New World'last summer and expected the same depth from Leyshon. The play lacked substance. A missed opportunity for much more social commentary. - Carol Hunter
12 Sep 10
Absolutely terrible.
Don't know why it claims to be a sensitive take on mental health - the characters were all offensive stereotypes. - Jane
11 Sep 10
absolutely loved it-entertaining and witty - maggie
11 Sep 10
I loved it, very lively and funny, moving and dramatic. - Harrie
10 Sep 10
There is a possibility this juvenile play might work on a smaller stage, with some judicous editing allowing the action to focus on a couple of the more interesting characters, but it fails miserably at The Globe. A tedious, disappointing mess which fails to do any justice to the subject matter. Just awful. - lostmarples
10 Sep 10
While the acting was impressive and stage design effective, the play told us nothing about madness. It lacked a heart and was a great disappointment. So much more could have been achieved. - E. Fry
A rebuild of Shakespeare's original Globe theatre close to the original site. Society of London Theatre member. Note: Booking opened March 3rd 1996. Tickets for performances range from £5 (standing in the yard) to £37.50 for the best gallery seats). Induction loop facilities. Wheelchair facilities. Extensive education programme. Restaurant, cafe and bar. Dark during the winter but the museum and venue remain open. One of the few London venues with Sunday performances. The Globe Theatre Season runs from April to October. The Globe Education Centre is located in Park Street and runs an educational autumn season.
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