SOUTHERN BELLES ; SOMETHING UNSPOKEN ☆☆☆☆☆
KINGS HEAD THEATRE
Southern Belles is the intoxicating back to back pairing of two of Tennessee Williams most rivetingly queer one act plays, ‘Something Unspoken’ and ‘And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens’. In this compelling production at the King’s Head Theatre the glorious dialogue in both plays paints a suffocating picture of the steaming, mannerly South. Each is individually brilliant. Queerguru’s Jonny Ward covered Sad Stories in thirst quenching depth from its first run in August (https:// queerguru.com/2018/08/and-tell-sad-stories-of-the-deaths-of-queens-a-short-slice-of-genius-playwriting-from-a-queer-master-at-work). Let us now introduce you to Something Unspoken and what you get from this well chosen and bitey pairing, directed by Jamie Armitage.
Miss Cornelia Scott (Annnabel Leventon) is an imperious, entitled aristocratic Southern spinster. Wealthy and connected she sits in her mansion at the center of web woven by her words. She bides her time by the telephone, waiting for the results of the election for Regent of her local Southern Ladies organization. The manipulative Cornelia pretends disinterest but has made it clear she will deign to accept the role if the Ladies cannot but help demand her regal presence. She is accompanied by her secretary Grace (Fiona Marr). The election at the end of the phone introduces the elevated society in which Cornelia sits. The real story is by her side in the unspoken depths of the relationship between the two unequal women. It is a love that has blossomed, like fifteen years of roses, in an unacknowledged coupling.
The genius of this play is in the language. It says all the things that cannot be said but without saying them. The language is breathtakingly acrobatic. It comes so close to falling into the unsayable truth of their love and then at the last minute is snatched up and away. Even perfect writing still requires exceptional performances and these are delivered by the plummy bombshells of the mesmerising steel grey Annabel Leventon and the humble poetics of Fiona Marr.
The power of the two plays is partly highlighted by their contrasts. Unspoken Stories is about hidden feelings at a loss for words and yearning to be said whereas Sad Stories bares them in completely explicit language and situations. Where they overlap is in showing how for some personal wealth give☆s a limited and precarious freedom in a world that is crushingly ill suited to their real needs. And for those without money and position there is a desperate dependence that suffocates romance.
The two plays show the spectrum of Tennessee WIlliams talent. Unspoken Stories is a linguistic masterpiece with a heroin of Shakespearean flaws. Sad Stories is a flayed raw revelation of needy humanity. Together in this production they are rightly exceptional.
https://www.kingsheadtheatre.com/
Until August 24th 2019
Review by Andrew HebdenQueerguru Correspondent Andrew Hebden is a MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES graduate spending his career between London, Beijing and NYC as an expert in media and social trends. As part of the expanding minimalist FIRE movement he recently returned to the UK and lives in Soho. He devotes as much time as possible to the movies, theatre and the gym. His favorite thing is to try something (anything) new every day.
Labels: 2019, Andrew Hebden, London Theatre, teview
