Theatre review: Wise Children

After famously making her mark on the Globe with an innovative use of its budget, Emma Rice was controversially given a large Arts Council grant to launch her new company Wise Children, named after the Angela Carter novel she adapts for its first production. Dora Chance (Gareth Snook) narrates the story of her life with twin sister Nora (Etta Murfitt,) and particularly their relationship with their father, also one of a pair of twins. Their mother died in childbirth and their father, famous Shakespearean actor Melchior Hazard (Ankur Bahl,) didn’t want anything to do with them but, not wanting them to surface many years later and cause him a scandal, arranged for them to be financially supported on the proviso they kept quiet. The story he’s always been happy to imply is that they’re actually his twin brother’s children, and Peregrine (Sam Archer) does end up behaving more like a father to the girls (albeit an abusive one, in a throwaway part of the story that’s one of my main issues with the show.)

The title Wise Children comes from the saying “it is a wise child that knows its own father,” and while the story centres on women the influence of their father-figures – and knowing which figure really is the biggest influence for better or worse – looms large.

The young Dora and Nora (Bettrys Jones and Mirabelle Gremaud) grow up to become Showgirl Dora and Nora (Melissa James and Omari Douglas,) their joining the theatre the only thing that eventually gets their biological father to pay attention to them (if only because, as The Lucky Chances, they become a support act that can help sell his new Shakespearean revue.) So Wise Children is a story about theatrical families and a love letter to the theatre, making it clear why it seemed an obvious choice for adaptation. But while I never say never – the description of the story was intriguing enough to make me go despite never having warmed to Rice’s shows – it may be time to say that I’ve given her style of theatre enough chances, and say it’s unlikely to convert me in the future.

What I’ve always felt about Emma Rice’s productions is that they impose a style on the story whether it suits it or not, and while this isn’t quite as tone-deaf as deliberately taking the comic timing out of a sitcom there’s a major disconnect. I haven’t read the novel but, being by Angela Carter, it would seem a fair guess that it’s got a twisted fairytale style, and that isn’t something that comes across. Instead we get Rice’s default setting of firing the whimsy gun at the stage, but in the middle of all of this there’s some alarmingly throwaway references to child sexual abuse, including one about child pornography that’s done as an actual joke. I don’t know why it feels OK to light-heartedly stage deaths but not to use the same approach for scenes of abuse, but it probably comes down to the fact that death is inevitable but fucking your 13-year-old niece isn’t. I feel like the story was meant to be about Dora’s eventual understanding and acceptance that what Peregine did was wrong and has affected her whole life, but it ends up being a blink-and-miss-it scene that’s eventually called back to right at the end – “Oh by the way, what you did 60 years ago was a bad thing, now let’s sing ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.’”

I did like a lot of the performances, although there’s also a couple of performers here I’ve never warmed to – encouraging Paul Hunter to do his Paul Hunter thing is a bit of a recipe for trouble as far as I’m concerned although at least here one of his characters is a music hall comedian so it fits. Wise Children didn’t bore me as such but it didn’t engage me either, and only makes me think the new company will continue the trend of shows that I look on dispassionately, seeing the theatrical devices and the reactions they’re meant to elicit, but not feeling any of them; unless I see a good reason not to, I’m probably best off avoiding future shows for now. This one’s a mixture of the problematic and the entertaining with the former proving more memorable in the end.

Wise Children by Emma Rice, based on the novel by Angela Carter, is booking until the 10th of November at the Old Vic; then continuing on tour to Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol, Manchester, York, Chester and Coventry.

Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Steve Tanner.