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tHeAtre reVIew

Princess of the A SmArt look At tHAt
graveyard Palace
Ellen Goodey and Annie Smol nAggIng ‘wHo’S HumAn?’
(co-directors)
Ellen Goodey and Chris Goodey
(co-writers) QueStIon
Stratford Circus Arts Centre

society. We see frst the Stone “You give him an assessment,” explains
Photo: Nigel Kellway Age, then ancient Greece, the Devil, “see if he’s got a soul. If not
followed by the turbulent early he goes down with me.” For ‘soul’ read
days of the protestant religion, ‘brain’ – if he lacks the capacity to
and fnally the all-knowing world read and learn his catechism, then out
of modern medicine in the all- he will go, cast off to the hell of
powerful asylum institution. non-belonging.
These apparently highly
disparate worlds are united A later scene is in an asylum.
by one thing – a desire and a Walter (Gopal Gautam), the ‘idiot’
drive to identify those who are character, appears in a gag. He is
different, those who don’t quite subjected to an IQ test. He can’t
qualify as human, and to answer because he is wearing a gag.
remove them from human He is predestined to be excluded,
society. In each case the unable to answer the questions of the
n theatre, there is nothing worse exclusion is based on the person’s modern high religion of medical
I than a play that simply reaffrms its brain power – if they are perceived not authority. This medical authority needs
audience’s expectations and beliefs: to have enough of it, they are out. him in the hell of its institutions and
and similarly there is nothing better shapes his life from birth accordingly.
than when a play, like this one, chips For soul read brain
away at everything you think is true. It is startlingly original. The sets are The lead artist, co-director, co-writer
Sometimes you see a production that is beautifully and brilliantly simple and co-choreographer for this unique
so smart, so wise, and so challenging, and the time transitions happen and striking theatrical event is Ellen
that you would just like to be able to effortlessly. The dialogue at times hits Goodey, who has been making a
take it away with you for future you between the eyes with the force of name for herself in dance, drama and
reference. And here is such a play. a heavyweight boxer’s glove. “What if singing circles for a while.
someone looks like a human but they She co-wrote this with her father, the
Princess of the Graveyard Palace aren’t?” a group of drunken Greek historian Chris Goodey. Together they
defes easy description. A princess philosophers ponder. We all know have produced something very special,
(Katy Cracknell) grapples both with her where that is going to lead. In the as have their very talented team of
own grief and with her fears for the religious scene God and the Devil actors, performers and support staff.
future as her father, the King (Delson explain the mechanics of predestination Who is human? And who decides the
Weekes) dies. She wants to understand – the idea that each of us is assigned answer? It’s a big question, and this
the world outside her palace, and so either for hell or heaven from birth – play lays bare the very disturbing
we go on a time-travelling tour of to a puzzled priest, who asks, answers that sometimes come back.
several thousand years of human “How do I know who’s who?” Simon Jarrett

teleVISIon reVIewS
notHIng muCH HAPPeneD... we see him in his shop with his young
assistant. The assistant is a young man
AnD tHAt’S VerY exCItIngn with a learning disability. He brings
meat in and out of cold storage,
replenishes shelves with stock and
the missing recent disappearances. She is from carries out other butcher’s-assistant
BBC 1 Series 2 a British army family, while another tasks. Relations are friendly, and at
missing girl is French, and so the one point the butcher smiles indulgently
Pointless frantic search to fnd her alive involves when he puts the wrong things on the
BBC 1 Series 16, a volatile mix of British military police, wrong shelf, and reminds him about
episodes 13 & 14 local German police, and the loveable what needs to go where.
but eternally gloomy French detective Otherwise this character plays no
he events of the BBC’s excellent Julien Baptiste. signifcant plot role. He is not a victim
T second series of The Missing centre of violence, he does not bring out the
on a British army base in Germany. Some way into the series a not very good or evil characteristics of his fellow
A teenage girl’s mysterious important thing happens. A chief characters and he is not a plot device
disappearance has echoes of similar suspect is the local town butcher and Continued overleaf t

www.cl-initiatives.co.uk Community Living Vol 30 No 3 | Spring 2017 25