Selkies and Humans

Selkie by Caroline Emerick 2013

Despite its ‘otherworldly’ subject matter, ‘The Selkie Wife’ deals with all too human dilemmas.

An amusing subplot shows the effect a handsome young man, particularly one whose knowledge of social morality is loose, has on an impressionable teenage girl; fathers of young girls will fully sympathise with Cal as he tries vainly to protect his daughter’s honour and her ‘peanut butter virginity’.

A more serious central image is that of ‘the walkers’: couples who unconsciously give mutual physical protection as they walk along the cliff edge, because, as Mary explains to Dylan, if something bad should happen, each wants to look after the other: ‘they’d rather be dead than the one left behind’.

This idea of loving someone else more than oneself is contrasted with the Selkie life of individual freedom: attractive to anyone who has been abused and denied freedom, as the women in the play have: the fear of making oneself vulnerable to more hurt by falling in love again is implicit in the character of Gen, who struggles to understand why Mary has made a life on land with Cal.

Striking, funny, heart-rending and beautifully written, ‘The Selkie Wife’ also gives the audience much to ponder.

So what is a Selkie?

Selkie is the dialect word for seal in the Orkney Islands, where the Selkie Folk are still a local  myth. Indeed, the song which haunts our upcoming production of ‘The Selkie Wife’ at The Apollo is itself from the Orkneys – more about that in another blog.

The basic folklore, of Celtic origin, and possibly connected to the Scandinavian myth of the Finfolk, is of creatures able to shift their form from seals into humans and back again, through the casting off and putting on of their seal skin. In some variations they can only transform at certain times, and many tales have humans concealing their mates’ seal skins to hold them to their human form.

There are many tales of Selkies, most suggesting that in human form, these creatures are alluring and mesmerising: they can mate with humans and their children can themselves become selkies. Tales abound of Selkies finding their skins after years on land and deserting their human partners, often taking their children with them.

Selkies are variously believed to be a water-borne form of fairyfolk;  humans who for some misdemeanour were condemned to spend their life as seals, and souls of humans who had drowned. Kelley Jo Burke has taken a variation of the last explanation as a basis for her beautiful and thought-provoking play.

‘The Selkie Wife’ will be staged at The Apollo Theatre on 21^st, 22^nd and 25^th-29^th October at 7.30pm.

For tickets and further information please visit: http://www.apollo-theatre.org.uk/the-selkie-wife/

Our director introduces.....The Selkie Wife.

The next production at the Apollo Theatre will be ‘The Selkie Wife’, a play by Canadian author Kelley Jo Burke.  Her work is well known in her home country but the Apollo is proud and delighted to announce that this will be the UK premiere of this particular play.

The director is Ginnie Orrey.  More usually seen on the Apollo stage, Ginnie has chosen to direct this complex and beautifully written play after seeing it in a tiny theatre on the Canadian prairies and subsequently meeting the author, who is ‘absolutely thrilled’ that her play will be travelling to the Isle of Wight.  She found her inspiration in the Celtic myth of ‘selkies’ – seals who shed their sealskins to come on to dry land, find a mate and have children and then return to the sea.  Kelley Jo has turned the myth on its head by focusing on a selkie who chooses to keep her human form and stay on land with her husband and family, and the difficult decisions she has to make when another selkie comes to take her back to the water.

The cast includes Apollo stalwarts Ian Moth and Sue Edwards, alongside relative newcomers Esther Poucher and Maureen Sullivan, and introduces Josh Pointing, from the Isle of Wight Shakespeare Company. 

‘The Selkie Wife’ opens on 21 October and runs to 29 October.

Habeas Corpus: The History

You may have seen the title of the latest Apollo Players’ show and wondered, ‘What does it mean?’

Habeas Corpus is a Latin phrase which literally means: ‘You may have the body’.

It is normally a legal term, going back to the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679 which itself only made legal what was already a known procedure by which the length of time the police or courts could hold a prisoner without trial may be challenged.

The writ of Habeas Corpus, on which the act was based, goes back to at least the 12^th century and was guaranteed in the Magna Carta of 1215, famously signed by King John at Runnymede.

So that’s your history lesson for the day.

But....

Typically, Alan Bennett has taken a formal Latin legal phrase and bent it to his will, for in the play, the message ‘You may have the body’ refers not to anyone being imprisoned against their will, nor any crime being committed, but to the various characters’ plotting to ‘have the body’ of their choice – in a very different context!

Our hilarious, entertaining production is about as far away as it is possible to get from a stuffy courtroom drama – come along and see it at The Apollo Theatre from 2 September.

Tickets and further information available at: http://www.apollo-theatre.org.uk/habeas-corpus/

Habeas Corpus – the Apollo Players

The first show of our new 2016-2017 season is the hilarious ‘Habeas Corpus’ by Alan Bennett.

While still studying History at Oxford, Bennett started out writing and performing satirical sketches in ‘Beyond the Fringe’ with the likes of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. He has said that at this time he thought he would end up as a vicar – for no better reason than he looked like one. Thankfully for British theatre, he quickly found his calling as a writer and performer, but he has always been happier, and some may say more successful, as the former.

Alan Bennett is now generally accepted as a ‘National Treasure’: perhaps his best known play currently is ‘The Lady in the Van’ which was made into a box office hit film starring Dame Maggie Smith, and was famously based on his real life experience of having a female tramp living in her van on his driveway. The Apollo Players, incidentally, staged ‘Lady in the Van’ in February 2014 with great success. He is also very well known for ‘The History Boys’, ‘the Madness of King George’ and a string of other plays, alongside his famous ‘Talking Heads’ series of monologues, and of course his laugh-out-loud autobiographical books.

Anyone who has seen any of Bennett’s work will know he has an original, satirical and always entertaining style: ‘Habeas Corpus’ is one of his early plays, dating from 1973, but it stands the test of time well, for its subject matter is ageless, and a good old-fashioned farce with mistaken identities, seaside postcard-style humour and exaggerated characters is always popular. It is a testament to the quality of the play that it has been regularly staged ever since it was written.

Following on from ‘Allo ‘Allo! which completely sold out every night of its run, this is likely to be another very popular show, so our advice is to book your seats early to avoid disappointment: tickets are now available online here: http://www.apollo-theatre.org.uk/habeas-corpus/

Worst Case Scenario - Concoction Theatre Company at the Apollo!

Concoction Theatre Company landed on our Apollo stage with a theatrical feast for the senses. With their production of “Worst Case Scenario” they delivered a fast-paced energetic and technically brilliant performance.

Most of the cast met whilst studying BA World Performance at East 15 where they conceived, devised and developed this comic piece. As two of the actors were educated on the Isle of Wight, it was a delight to have the opportunity to see them return as professionals and share the fruits of their training with an Island audience.

The story is bizarre and extraordinary, a court case conducted by animals after the last surviving dodo is injured in a road collision with a motorbike. The motorbike and the driver are both accused, with a squirrel, a cat and a hedgehog (among others) also having to take some responsibility for the incident. Humans, machines and animals are all of equal status in the courtroom, but this is like no other courtroom drama you will have seen before.

With excellent make-up and costumes, physical theatre techniques and characterisation, the characters are all believable, quirky and endearing. There are beautiful contrasts in pace with sudden changes from real time into slow-motion, innovative use of props in the collision scene, music used to create different moods with precise movements to enhance the comedy.

Uplifting, joyful, funny, charming and totally absorbing. 55 minutes of high class entertainment.

The company will be performing Worst Case Scenario at The Cockpit theatre in Camden from 3^rd to 6^th August.

For more information and to book tickets, go to: http://www.worstcasescenarioonstage.com/

Review by Helen Reading.

‘Allo ‘Allo! – Review

What can one say about this show? Obviously, it’s very, very funny – as attested by the raucous laughter emanating from the audience at every performance so far. It is also the first show for a long while to be completely – and I mean completely – sold out at the Apollo. In fact, demand has outstripped seating capacity so much that we have had to disappoint huge numbers of people, to whom we apologise.

For those lucky enough to get tickets, this was a real treat of a show: audiences could get into the action very quickly, as the characters are already familiar to viewers of the long-running hit TV show, so as soon as the world-weary Rene entered his cafe, Yvette appeared, seductively whispering ‘Oh, Rene’, or Edith started to sing, we knew exactly what to expect.

The disadvantage of taking on such a popular show however, is the challenge of getting the characters exactly right, and without exception, the cast have captured the essence, and in many cases, uncannily the physical appearances, of their TV counterparts perfectly. This is due in no small measure to Steve Reading’s casting and directing, but also to the skills of the actors, augmented by the costume department coming up with just the right clothes, uniforms, wigs and so on. The cleverly designed, adaptable set, with a revolve enabling several places to be represented, also contributed to the atmosphere.

It would be unfair in such a talented cast to single individuals out for praise, as every single character was hilarious in their own way. However, one has to note the sheer physical stamina of Drew Adcock who, as a perfectly downtrodden Rene, carried the plot along throughout. He was ably assisted by Glenys Williams who delighted audiences with her beautifully off key singing, and by newcomers to the Apollo stage, Joanna Jenner, vamping it up as Yvette and Esther Poucher (Mimi), a wonderfully tiny ball of aggression.

Other regulars in the cafe – to Rene’s obvious dismay – were Maria Wilkinson’s Michelle, who delivered her catchphrase ‘I will say this only once’ perfectly, and managed to be believably a Resistance member even dressed as a nun and a ‘lady of the night’; and ‘It is I, Le Clerc’ played with fantastic eccentricity by Danny Carmichael. We also of course had regular visits from John Abraham’s  Officer Crabtree: quite apart from the mispronunciations, it will take a while to lose the memory of the ‘poloceman’ being caught by Gruber bending over with his trousers at half mast!

I mentioned wigs above, and the subplot of the Colonel’s ‘wiglet’ was played perfectly by Ian Moth as von Stromm himself, alongside Jack Tutt’s Bertorelli, winner of the most over the top Italian accent on the stage: his impersonation of Hitler telling a joke was a high spot of the night. Lieutenant Gruber, played by Dave Newton, deservedly received some of the loudest laughs with his physical comedy as he flirted outrageously with Rene.

The Gestapo was there of course, and Pete Harris’s Herr Flick captured every essence of the officer, from his cane and stiff-legged walk to his penchant for dressing up: Flick in a cinema usherette’s uniform had to be seen to be believed. Helen Reading as Helga was his perfect foil: her finest moment was her reaction to being asked to model the Gestapo suspender belt, complete with mousetraps: ‘and don’t cross your legs’! Reuben Loake, another Apollo newcomer, was excellent barking orders as General von Schmelling.

Add in a plot comprising a hidden Fallen Madonna painting; a few knockwurst sausages and a plot to impersonate Hitler; a couple of perfectly ‘hooray Henry’ airmen (Matt Coles and Lewis Wheeler), French peasants providing both atmosphere in the cafe and help with scene shifting, and the front of house staff (and some of the actors) mingling with audiences before the show and at the interval, and you have an amazing show.

Yes, they had a good script, written by the TV show’s original writers, Croft and Lloyd, as a basis, but the cast and crew of ‘Allo ‘Allo! have more than done justice to it – they have made it their own, and fully deserve the success they have achieved. Well done all!