Diamond Geezer
Gone But Not Forgotten
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If you are here in town for the Open Meeting there is a Howard Brenton play on at The Playhouse from Wed 12th - Sat 15th Nov (starting at 7.45pm) called Epsom Downs which may interest you. Tickets are only £9.
[SIZE=-1]Have mixed and matched two or three previews of the play to give you a flavour.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Commissioned and first performed in 1977, Epsom Downs charts the fortunes of a host of characters during Derby Day in Silver Jubilee year. Howard Brenton skilfully weaves a complex tapestry of stories together into a satirically comic drama which traces the fortunes of a huge number of characters. about life in Britain during a time of social upheaval and change.[/SIZE]
The prevailing mood of the play is comic; Derby Day allows Brenton to display English people of all backgrounds in celebratory mood, and we are presented with a frenetic, and often extremely funny, Bacchanal of boozing, betting and fornication. Nevertheless, Brenton is careful to point out that there is a darker aspect to this orgy. The language and staging are simultaneously stripped-down, comically inventive and occasionally menacing:
A kaleidoscopic cast of characters gather on the Downs for the legendary race: the Aga Khan, a drunken Labour peer,the rich, the poor, the old, the young, gypsies, bookies, the runners and riders. And the great race itself is run.
In 1977, 'Derby Day' was almost a national festival. Large companies stopped work for the commentary on the race and thousands flocked onto Epsom Downs. In the Derby that year Lester Piggott, riding the favourite The Minstrel, almost gave his supporters a heart attack by trailing at the back for three-quarters of the race. The field was only a few furlongs from the post when he finally gave his horse its head, to burst through for a famous victory.
For this production the whole auditorium becomes the racecourse and the open spaces surrounding it, peopled with a multitude of characters and incidents. We meet gypsies, a mother and daughter, pedlars (Kermit frogs and other toys), a police inspector in charge of the day and the trainer of the favourite runner (both noted as grammar school products). We meet an evangelist with a bizarre message for the world, see a long agonising queue for the inadequate ladies' toilets, witness a crass attempt by a sacked stable lad to seduce the gypsy daughter from her traditions and hear of a horse who dreams of sharing its stall with a goat! Themes of freedom, and doubts of identity are touched on, and all the strands brought together in time for the climax of the great race. After which a team of people listed only as 'Inmates of the Asylum' picked up litter to clear the course for the next day: their promised reward, a cup of tea.
With so large a canvas many of the characters can only be sketched in, with some predictable outcomes. The evangelist and his partner are presented as a reformed gambler and an ex-alcoholic, who succumb again by the end to the betting-slip and champagne.
The central characters of the play, Margaret and Sandy, are a homeless couple with two small children; they resolve on a desperate bet, placing their sole remaining savings on Lester Piggot’s horse. Much of the action of the play revolves around their tense wait to see if their gamble pays off.
A well-remembered moment in the history of the Derby brought us the ghost of Emily Davison, wandering unseen among the crowds. This famous fighter for womens' suffrage ran on to the course in 1913 to snatch the reins of the King's horse, was knocked down, and died four days later. We see her re-enact this in the play, although the author has diminished her persistence and fanaticism and, oddly, gives her no mention at any time of the cause she died for: Votes for Women. The author seems to have seen her in the main as an early forerunner of contemporary feminism.
A 'grandfather' sees Lester Piggott's win, extraordinarily, as a betrayal of the working class, and a Labour peer, Lord Rack, an addicted gambler, talks of having betrayed his own and his party's principles in some unspecified way. But all in all Brenton's handling is neither radical nor confrontational, preferring instead a somewhat sentimental approach, particularly to his working class characters.
The self-doubts and decision making of the various gamblers are well rendered in good individual performances: Lord Rack stepping with elephantine grace between pavement cracks and bare patches before risking his money; the trainer Charles Pearce's contempt for the crowd; the bookmakers' rivalries and instant calculation of odds; a father's ball skills as he plays with his son. The play is at its best in the final scenes: a montage of voice, commentary and crowd ensemble which are both a brilliant piece of writing and total theatre, driven by the radio commentary.
The horses (one a speaking part!) are very convincing. The author, one hears, wanted them to be played by naked young men.. Thankfully, they aren't.
Hilarious, entertaining and littered with social and political comment, this is a bold, inventive piece of theatre. Like the Derby itself, Epsom Downs is a winner !
[SIZE=-1]From drunken Labour peers through stable boys and the Aga Khan himself to a homeless family living in a dormobile, there is rarely time to catch breath as the play builds towards it’s gripping climax and the race itself comes to life on the stage.[/SIZE]
Even the racecourse itself speaks: “I am the Derby Course. Don’t be fooled by lush green curves in the countryside. I am dangerous. I am a bad-tempered bastard. I bite legs.”
[SIZE=-1]Have mixed and matched two or three previews of the play to give you a flavour.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Commissioned and first performed in 1977, Epsom Downs charts the fortunes of a host of characters during Derby Day in Silver Jubilee year. Howard Brenton skilfully weaves a complex tapestry of stories together into a satirically comic drama which traces the fortunes of a huge number of characters. about life in Britain during a time of social upheaval and change.[/SIZE]
The prevailing mood of the play is comic; Derby Day allows Brenton to display English people of all backgrounds in celebratory mood, and we are presented with a frenetic, and often extremely funny, Bacchanal of boozing, betting and fornication. Nevertheless, Brenton is careful to point out that there is a darker aspect to this orgy. The language and staging are simultaneously stripped-down, comically inventive and occasionally menacing:
A kaleidoscopic cast of characters gather on the Downs for the legendary race: the Aga Khan, a drunken Labour peer,the rich, the poor, the old, the young, gypsies, bookies, the runners and riders. And the great race itself is run.
In 1977, 'Derby Day' was almost a national festival. Large companies stopped work for the commentary on the race and thousands flocked onto Epsom Downs. In the Derby that year Lester Piggott, riding the favourite The Minstrel, almost gave his supporters a heart attack by trailing at the back for three-quarters of the race. The field was only a few furlongs from the post when he finally gave his horse its head, to burst through for a famous victory.
For this production the whole auditorium becomes the racecourse and the open spaces surrounding it, peopled with a multitude of characters and incidents. We meet gypsies, a mother and daughter, pedlars (Kermit frogs and other toys), a police inspector in charge of the day and the trainer of the favourite runner (both noted as grammar school products). We meet an evangelist with a bizarre message for the world, see a long agonising queue for the inadequate ladies' toilets, witness a crass attempt by a sacked stable lad to seduce the gypsy daughter from her traditions and hear of a horse who dreams of sharing its stall with a goat! Themes of freedom, and doubts of identity are touched on, and all the strands brought together in time for the climax of the great race. After which a team of people listed only as 'Inmates of the Asylum' picked up litter to clear the course for the next day: their promised reward, a cup of tea.
With so large a canvas many of the characters can only be sketched in, with some predictable outcomes. The evangelist and his partner are presented as a reformed gambler and an ex-alcoholic, who succumb again by the end to the betting-slip and champagne.
The central characters of the play, Margaret and Sandy, are a homeless couple with two small children; they resolve on a desperate bet, placing their sole remaining savings on Lester Piggot’s horse. Much of the action of the play revolves around their tense wait to see if their gamble pays off.
A well-remembered moment in the history of the Derby brought us the ghost of Emily Davison, wandering unseen among the crowds. This famous fighter for womens' suffrage ran on to the course in 1913 to snatch the reins of the King's horse, was knocked down, and died four days later. We see her re-enact this in the play, although the author has diminished her persistence and fanaticism and, oddly, gives her no mention at any time of the cause she died for: Votes for Women. The author seems to have seen her in the main as an early forerunner of contemporary feminism.
A 'grandfather' sees Lester Piggott's win, extraordinarily, as a betrayal of the working class, and a Labour peer, Lord Rack, an addicted gambler, talks of having betrayed his own and his party's principles in some unspecified way. But all in all Brenton's handling is neither radical nor confrontational, preferring instead a somewhat sentimental approach, particularly to his working class characters.
The self-doubts and decision making of the various gamblers are well rendered in good individual performances: Lord Rack stepping with elephantine grace between pavement cracks and bare patches before risking his money; the trainer Charles Pearce's contempt for the crowd; the bookmakers' rivalries and instant calculation of odds; a father's ball skills as he plays with his son. The play is at its best in the final scenes: a montage of voice, commentary and crowd ensemble which are both a brilliant piece of writing and total theatre, driven by the radio commentary.
The horses (one a speaking part!) are very convincing. The author, one hears, wanted them to be played by naked young men.. Thankfully, they aren't.
Hilarious, entertaining and littered with social and political comment, this is a bold, inventive piece of theatre. Like the Derby itself, Epsom Downs is a winner !
[SIZE=-1]From drunken Labour peers through stable boys and the Aga Khan himself to a homeless family living in a dormobile, there is rarely time to catch breath as the play builds towards it’s gripping climax and the race itself comes to life on the stage.[/SIZE]
Even the racecourse itself speaks: “I am the Derby Course. Don’t be fooled by lush green curves in the countryside. I am dangerous. I am a bad-tempered bastard. I bite legs.”
