'Wyrd Sisters' - The Apollo Players

Terry Pratchett is widely regarded as a god of fantasy literature. To attempt to stage a play based on one of his novels is in itself commendable, and to achieve the mixture of charm, hilarity and sheer silliness worthy of the book and play versions of 'Wyrd Sisters' is a credit to directors Dan Burns and Eve Fradgley, and to their cast.


The play opens with some slightly familiar lines: 'When shall we three meet again?', delivered by a trio of suitably weird-looking witches, the Wyrd Sisters of the title. The reply however is less Shakespearean: 'I can make next Wednesday,' says a witch, consulting her diary.

This sets the atmosphere for the play, introducing characters at once familiar and strange: the witches themselves are dominated by Granny Weatherwax:, played with hilarious gravity by Carole Crow, with homely, motherly Nanny Ogg and young, inexperienced romantic Magrat Garlick, brought to dreamy-eyed life by Carol Simpson.

Meanwhile in the castle, the ghost of a murdered King (David Pratchett) waits to get his revenge on evil Duke Felmet: Simon Cardew's manic portrayal of the guilty Duke sinking further and further into madness, trying to scrub invisible blood from his hands with a nail file is a joy, while Glenys Lloyd-Williams flounces around the stage cracking her whip, perfect as his scheming wife.

A baby and a crown are spirited away into an acting troop - babies, Granny explains, are easy to hide as there are so many of them, while crowns have a habit of being found. But when both are needed to save the kingdom, magic spells, accompanied by pyrotechnics and smoke of course, along with a play within a play, save the day and in true Pratchett fashion the evil Duke and Duchess are defeated and the true king - sort of - rules. Magrat gets her man - the Fool, played by Mark Duffus - and all live happily ever after.

Other notable mentions go to John Sole as the leader of the actors, Amy Burns as Tomjon and Dave Talbot as the Chamberlain, and they are supported by a background cast of Apollo actors taking on various roles including guards, robbers and actors.

'Wyrd Sisters' is perfect pre-Christmas viewing with its pantomime-like features and humour, and is suitable for all the family. it runs from Tuesday 13th to Saturday 17th December with performance starting at 7.30pm.

Wyrd Sisters

Whether you’re a fan of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels – in which case you may well have read ‘Wyrd Sisters’ in its original book form – or you have no notion who or what the Discworld is – you’ll still enjoy the play version of ‘Wyrd Sisters’.

Something is rotten in the kingdom of Lancre: Good King Verence has been murdered by Evil Duke Felmet who is now ruling in his place. Verence is understandably somewhat miffed about this and is busy haunting the castle to get his revenge.

Meanwhile, three local witches are – well, being witches. Round about the cauldron go, and all that – but they know a secret that could be the key to righting all the wrongs in Lancre....

...and when the Evil Duke decides to have a play performed, the Wyrd Sisters decide the play’s the thing...wherein to catch the conscience of the Duke... and reinstate the rightful king...

Yes, Shakespeare had a few similar ideas, but he never mixed them up like this!

‘Wyrd Sisters’ is a real family play, just the thing to enjoy on a cold December evening.

See you there!

'Wyrd Sisters' runs from December 9th - 17th (not Sunday or Monday); more information and ticket booking are now available via the Apollo Theatre's website.

The Box Office opens from Saturday December 3rd.

Seals and Humans - What Does It All Mean?

Rehearsal shot: Mary and Gen reminisce about their past life in the ocean

Although The Selkie Wife may appear to be about a fantasy world in which people can transform themselves into seals at will, there is an underlying, all too real, message for us non-Selkie humans.

The women in Kelley Jo Burke's play have become Selkies as a result of being saved at the point of death from abusive relationships. In recognition of this theme, we are dedicating the back page of our programme to the Island Women's Refuge who do essential and amazing work to support women who have suffered domestic abuse.

After being in a controlling environment, our Selkies understandably relish and treasure the freedom, power and independence they acquire: the ocean is a world of endless possibilities, theirs to explore.

This is why Gen cannot understand why Mary has chosen to forsake all that to spend twenty years on land with her husband and daughter: how could a dreary life in a small town compare with the power to 'call up the maelstrom, just for the ride'?

It is young Dylan who starts to grasp the alternative: the metaphor of the walkers, a couple who stroll along the cliff edge, both subconsciously protecting the other from possible danger, gives him an insight into a relationship in which each partner cares more for the other than for themselves; where they live a life of mutual support and love. 

The dichotomy Burke presents us with is that in order to achieve this deep, lovingly committed relationship, one has to sacrifice some of one's own power and make oneself vulnerable to the other person. And this is a threatening prospect for those who have been hurt in previous relationships.

By distancing us from the horrifying suffering women can endure by use of mythology, The Selkie Wife manages to convey the depth of its message while remaining positive, mesmerising, funny and uplifting.

The Selkie Wife is playing at The Apollo Theatre on 21, 22, and 25-29 October - tickets from the Box Office (open 11am - 2pm daily) at the theatre in Pyle Street, Newport, by phoning the Box Office on.    Or via our website 

The Selkie of Sule Skerry

The Selkie male is traditionally irresistible to the human woman.

At the start of The Selkie Wife, audiences will be treated to a beautiful rendition of a haunting traditional Orkney song, The Selkie of Sule Skerry, sung to the accompaniment of acoustic guitar. Music from this song also recurs providing atmospheric underpinning for key moments in the play.

This is, as far as we can remember, the first time a dramatic piece at The Apollo has included live music performances, and that along with being the UK Premiere makes The Selkie Wife a very special Apollo production.

The song follows the more common Selkie theme of a Selkie man seducing a human woman: she laments that she does not know where her child's father is, and he appears to tell her that he is only a man on land, but is a seal in water. He takes his son to the child's destiny, since children of Selkies can themselves also take the form of seals and swim away.

The song was collected in print only in the nineteenth century, when it was listed as Child Ballad No 113; there are many different versions of the song and it has been recorded by artists as varied as Joan Baez, Steeleye Span and the Breton singer Cecile Corbel.

But we love our version: you can hear an extract sung and played live on The Chris Sullivan Programme on Vectis Radio at 2pm on Tuesday 18 October, which will whet your appetite for the whole thing at our shows on October 21st, 22nd and 25th -29th.

To listen to the radio broadcast go to: Vectis Radio Listen Live

To book tickets for The Selkie Wife go to: Apollo Theatre - The Selkie Wife

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.