London Tide.
This play was a masterpiece in every sense of the word— the lighting, the set design, the costume design, the acting…ugh I could just go on and on. There was not one decision in the production that was unintentional. Before the play started, I was confused as to why the lights were flown down and hung low on the stage. However, throughout the play, I understood that they used the lights to represent the tide of the Thames River which created a beautiful image that added to the atmosphere.
The river was the play.
The play could not be what it was without the river.
The people couldn’t be who they were without the river.
I think it is such an interesting symbol of connection between this group of people, who have complicated relationships to their city and their heritage.
I loved how this play centered around these two women, Lizzie and Bella, and their fates. They were both such strong female characters that I felt very connected to. For Lizzie, she felt like it was her job to take care of her brother and father— her success did not matter. This made me so mad because she was such a courageous and smart woman who had so much ahead of her! I loved how Eugene recognized that she needed to create her own future in the end and did not need anyone else to dictate her life. That is truly true love. I was ecstatic when Bella and John ended up together because their connection was too demanding to stay apart. In the end, both of their identities did not compare to their feelings for each other, and the same thing they were both fighting against when they were being forced to marry was the same thing they both discarded when confessing how they felt.
I really loved the plot twist where we discovered that John Rokesmith was John Harmon— it added such an interesting layer of mystery to the story. The actor, Tom Mothersdale, who played Harmon, was fantastic and I thought his character was complex and unique. The pub owner woman, (I can’t remember her name right now but she was awesome and such a queen), was so strong in her values and I really admired her strength and protection over Lizzie. The actress who played Jenny, Ellie-May Sheridan, had phenomenal comedic timing and showed great maturity.
In The Guardian, the author states that, “The fluid alchemy of the novel is missing, the perpetual change not only of character but of place.” I could not disagree more. Although I have not read the novel, I think that the play was incredibly fluid in its transitions and I never got lost when switching from place to place and character to character. One of the most brilliant things about the show was how quickly it moved from storylines and intertwined them cohesively. For example, when Bella handed off the black mourning dress to Lizzie, while not directly meeting her, but breaking the reality of their worlds. It signified how Lizzie’s father’s death caused Bella to pass off her grief as a widow. This also showed how connected the two women’s stories were because they were both in the same position but in very different ways.
Overall, I loved this play so much and I hope to see it again. The choreography and staging left me in chills. I feel that them ending up in the same position as they started in the first song showed how much they changed while staying true to themselves.
Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant.
This is what we came to London for!
Bye now!
xoxo Gossip Girl
Theatre in London U of A 