This is one of the strangest and most troubling of the eight stories in
Beasts and Beauties . In
Part One we watch, captivated but horrified, as the
jealous stepmother , possessed by evil, gives her daughter an apple but then, when her stepson arrives, tricks him by making him search inside a deep and heavy trunk for an apple before slamming the lid down on the unfortunate child's neck, severing his head from his body. She then crudely but effectively ties the head back on the lifeless trunk with a scarf before cruelly tricking her daughter into believing that, with a simple cuff around the head, she has killed her brother. The distraught child and the wicked stepmother then drag the body behind a screen in order to make a gruesome meal from the remains. In
Part Two the horror intensifies as the unknowing father of the murdered child returns and we watch the grisly spectacle of his feasting enthusiastically on his own child.
To stage this extraordinary nightmare on stage, without elaborate special effects, and in a way that succeeded in compelling
the attention of the audience , took skill and courage from the actors as well as very hard work and careful preparation. Zara Ramm talks of the physical effort required in keeping up a constant and utterly believable
cry of distress throughout almost the entire scene, and Elaine Claxton tells how at one performance she actually thought she had
harmed the actor playing the boy as she slammed down the heavy lid of the trunk! It was a rare moment in theatre, one that compelled Bill Nash (who played the father) to
watch the scene from the wings night after night.
As you watch the scene unfold, notice not just the visual text, the actors, the shadows, the properties that make it work as a drama, but also listen to the sounds that punctuate the action. Terje's metallic-sounding music, unforgiving hard edges grating together, the constant crying of the daughter, the unforgettable sound of the chopper chopping through delicate bones, the obscene noises as the father sucks the last meat from his
son's bones before discarding them casually onto the floor with a crack. This is visceral theatre!
On the first day of public performances, the actors are thrown on stage less than three hours after the
dress rehearsal ! Thanks to the many rehearsals in previous weeks, the actors are well-prepared, and you can watch them practicing this scene and see how the effects were actually made in Staging Miracles.
