Iron Shoes' have a solid production of this Caryl Churchill play on their hands. But is it as timely as we think?
Ria Parry's production of Fen at Finborough Theatre sent me home replaying the moments of hilarity and warmth in my head as much as the ever-present hopelessness that pervades this play. Which is certainly a feat when the women of the Fens in Caryl Churchill's 1983 script are part of such a perpetual cycle of misery.
We meet Val who leaves her husband to be with the man she really loves only to find her heart is intrinsically tied to her children and peace is to be found only in death. She's not alone in this but hers is the story with a real arc. We see her fight her internal battle alongside snapshots of the other women who toil the potato fields with her. Each of them tries to find a kind of peace, be it through drink, religion or men. Occasionally a 150-year-old ghost drifts by to talk about serfdom and starvation and we drop in on a tormented hermaphrodite. Such is Churchill's layered play that concludes rather miserably with a look at life after death.
This production boasts a fantastic cast. Playing multiple characters, Elicia Daly has her audience grinning at a pre-teen's choreographed dance to a song about her village-bound ambitions. She plays the abused step-daughter of Angela (Nicola Harrison) who takes out her frustrations on her vulnerable, curious charge. Harrison and Wendy Nottingham play Val's abandoned kids to childish perfection and Katharine Burford is an affecting lead. Nottingham crops up again as Shirley who, though already exhausted from tending the fields, is also overworked at home by a loving but disengaged husband. In one of the most memorable scenes in Fen, he happily talks over her on completely unrelated subjects.
A stand-out feature of this show from Iron Shoes theatre company is the sound design by Dave Price. His soundscape is memorable, moving and deceptively simple. It transports the audience and amplifies the feelings of the characters that Churchill has so cleverly crafted. It works in perfect harmony with the script and at times fills the absence of lines. The sound design is a huge part of the reason the most playful and romantic moments of Fen linger long after the show. Music creates the warmth and love so desperately needed by all in this play.
Continuing the series of plays by women at Finborough Theatre, Fen highlights an absence of ambition, and a need to belong and be redeemed, that still stifles. After a Church session, a caring evangelical type tells Val, “we're all rubbish, but Jesus loves us anyway. So it's alright.” It's a line not easily forgotten when it's met with Katharine Burford's calm but horrified expression.
As Women's History Month begins and with International Women's Day next week, Iron Shoes' run of Fen is timely and affective but I think this production reminds us that perhaps we need something a little more hopeful than Fen right now.
Fen runs at Finborough Theatre until 26th March.
Photographer: Paul Toeman
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