Studiospace’s production of The Pride begins as the audience enters. Seated in the dimly lit, intimate theatre space we are confronted with lead actor James Crellin, in character, reading in his living room armchair. Immediately the audience are wrapped up in the feeling of the sunken parlour room; liquor is lined up on the side cabinet; Billie Holliday’s ‘I’ll be seeing you’ softly plays alongside the anticipated whispers of the audience in the surrounding space. We are transported into the smoky era of 1958. The à la mode setting of the stage’s room is contrasted with a back wall of fragmented mirror (set designers; Anqi Chen, Jennifer Hider, Helen Wong). Director Alex Mincksy explains the intention behind this: “It gives the audience the ability to see their own reflection whilst they’re watching the play. They therefore reflect on how they’re viewing the experience; how they’re perceiving it; how they react.”
(Photo credit: Studiospace)
Alexi Kaye Campbell’s play The Pride juxtaposes moments in the lives of three protagonists in 1958 and 2008. The play investigates the impact society has on their freedom as individuals and focuses on the romantic relationship between gay protagonists Oliver and Philip. Their relationship transfers over between eras, but it’s dynamic is portrayed in different ways. This magnifies how the liberation of gay rights has reached a transitional point historically and culturally, from the oppressed pre-sexual revolution of the late 1950s to the celebratory proud society of 2008.
Director, Alex Mincksy, and producer, Peter Chicken, put their creative stamp on Campbell’s script, varying the original cast list that featured the same three actors for the protagonist roles. Chicken explains, “The female role, Sylvia, we have split in two. She plays a very different role in both eras: it’s not about her sexual relationship with either male character, rather her pastoral care.” This creative decision is effective in signposting the time zones, which can become confusing. Spectacular costume designs (sourced by Hyunjee and Alice Ruben) also illuminate the change in style and tone, fading the gregarious fashion of the noughties into the swooping glamour of 1950s London.
Campbell’s play was hugely successful in its premiere production in 2008. Seemingly, Studiospace’s production has continued this popular success; tickets for the production sold out within 24 hours of release, suggesting the play cultivates a sense of magic that is different to anything we have seen in Studiospace before. This production is unarguably groundbreaking in its confrontation and dramatization of gay rights and sexual violence on stage.
James Crellin as Philip and Jonas Moore as Oliver demonstrated a spectacular range in shifting to and fro between setting, and honestly depicted the natural sexual intensity of a male homosexual relationship. Chicken observes both actors “Gave something to the role that we perhaps didn’t consider or couldn’t have seen creatively before.” Tullio Campanale stood out: despite playing a minor, doubled role in the plot, Campanale’s “Jack-the-lad” appearances offer a much needed light-hearted note. The star of the production though was the oppressed fifties Sylvia (Romilly Browne). Her running monologues are beautifully acted and expose the vulnerability and neglect of her character.
Mincksy uses sound design creatively to navigate the difficult plot (music selected by Isabelle Khait and Cassandra Pouget). Time is appropriated in this medium, with trashy noughties music and the sound effects of a fifties radio identifying the transition into each time period. However, these attempts don’t completely galvanise the overlapping scene changes, and perhaps aren’t as fluidly managed as they could have been in successfully creating clarity for the audience.
Mincksy and Chicken embark on a huge task of taking on such a complicated plot line. Most successfully directed and produced is the crescendo scene of sexual violence that occurs between the two male protagonists in 1958. Mincksy and Chicken described how it took conscious staging. “Even before we proposed the play we had to speak to the committee and the department to make sure that it was something they were comfortable with being dramatized in University of Bristol student production.” Their collaborative input does manage to successfully maintain the honesty and brutality of domestic violence. Credibly due to the lighting production (designers Geeta Villkhu, Shreya Sen), the scene drew the audience in to the violent action of the scene; immersing the room in darkness as it reached its intensification; cultivating a sinister mood reflective of the plot, and creating respectable space for the audience to process the drama that unfolds.
(Peter Chicken (left) and Alex Mincksy (right)
Overall, despite minor technical flaws, I hold high esteem for the rigour and consciousness from Studiospace’s team in creating such a controversial production. The production demonstrates a consciousness for the University’s culture, whilst identifying that theatre needs to be diversified. Mincksy looks to “Make other drama societies put on more challenging productions that are relevant and challenge the contentious issues of our culture.” This positive movement has already begun to take place – Chicken explains that “The Winston Slot for Dramsoc has just been announced as Vernon God Little, a play based on the novel by DBC Pierre.” This is a play that “kind of satirises gun crime and gun laws in the states, which is obviously a hugely contentious and relevant issue for the time.”
Studiospace’s production of The Pride allows us in pieces to see fragments of our own history; harshly cutting but sensitively placed, the play is effective in creating awareness of the turmoil that the gay rights movement has faced in its development to the present day.
★★★★