| Performance details | Venue: York Theatre Royal Dates: Friday 10 - Saturday 18 February 2006 Tickets: £5 - £17.50 Box office: 01904 623568. |
It was with great anticipation that me and my friend since childhood, Alice, settled into York Theatre Royal's velvety red seats. As teenagers, we used to watch the film version of The Witches of Eastwick over and over again - and if there was a third friend with us, we'd each assign ourselves to one of the three main characters. Needles to say, we were pretty keen! So what did the stage version have to offer? An opening scene not dissimilar in style, colour and intentional falsity, to the Truman Show or Edward Scissorhands, swept the audience into the town of Eastwick. And we watched, wide-eyed, as a chorus of neatly dressed men and women (all from the York Light Opera Company) explained in technicolour sing-song what a town like theirs is like. Unmarried women aren't welcome in Eastwick - their inherent wrongness just doesn't sit well beside 'happy' relationships like that of Clyde and Felicia Gabriel (wonderfully played by Martin Richardson and Pascha Turnbull, respectively). And it's for this reason the 'witches' of Eastwick, Alexandra Spofford (Sarah Barker), Jane Smart (Julie-Anne Smith), and Sukie Rougemont (Alexa Chaplin) are ostracized.  | | Janey's passion awakes... |
Round at Alex's house one stormy evening, the three women invent the man of their dreams - someone new, someone artistic, someone devilishly handsome... And when they clink their Martini glasses against a backdrop of thunderclaps, you know it won't be long before he appears. Having been summoned by all three women, Darryl Van Horne (Rory Mulvihill) obliges their wishes, wooing them one by one, by awakening their passion through art; he praises Alex's commercially unviable sculptures, he encourages Suki to vocalise her many thoughts, and he frees Janey from the learned constraints of her cello-playing - so much so that in one of the most entertaining moments of the whole performance, she leaps from her instrument, puts her legs around his waist and rips off her shirt. For those who haven't seen the film and are thinking about going see The Witches of Eastwick on stage, I won't reveal the ending (needless to say though, they ain't called witches for no reason!). What I will say about it, however, is that this has all the potential of the Rocky Horror Show - with music and sexual deviancy throughout, the ingredients are all there. And as someone who's donned a basque and fishnets for the Rocky Horror Show, I can honestly say it's as much fun, too. Katy Wright |
