Wildwoman

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King

Show – Wildwoman

Playwright – Kat Sandler

Production Company/Theatre space – (professional) Alberta Theatre Projects / The Martha Cohen Theatrre; The Werklund Centre.

Length – 2 Acts (2 hour, 45 mins, one intermission)

Genre/s – Drama

Premise – When Cathy (a teenage bride married off to Henry) “fails” to fulfill the royal imperative to produce male heirs, she considers her options including advice from Henry’s older mistress and a man with hypertrichosis kept as a pet.

Why this play? Why now? – Royality sex scandals are topical and although this play takes place in 1533 the conceit is that they speak in today’s vernacular – which is over the top fun.

Curiosities – I mused, as I often do, that if history had been taught this way in school how much more we would have learned…

Notable Moment – The codpiece always steals focus.

Notable writing –This play takes us to the keyhole to peep into people’s problems and sex lives. In this way we become not spectators at a play but voyeurs. Sandler has written a funny, vicious, epic tale with deliciously deeply flawed characters who behave badly. It’s salacious, sexy, serious, and often silly. Beautifully written.  

Notable performances – Synthia Yusuf plays the bored Cathy who longs to run France rather than produce its offspring. Yusuf sup

erbly transitions from valley girl to tyrant. Nathan Kay as the entitled royal has the sexual appetite of Prince Andrew and the strut of a randy rockstar.  He is the man we love to hate. N Girgis reprises a little of her Drowning Girls role having two scenes in a cold bath – and in 45 years I’ve never seen her give a bad performance. Elizabeth Barrett as the calculating maid turned fecund wife and Conner Stuart the Elephant Man canine of the court round out this talented cast.

Notable design/Production – Narda McCarroll should be knighted for that brilliant set. Another king – Gerald King has given us the royal treatment with the lighting design.

Notable direction – Jamie King is the king of this production. She has presides over this production with passion and precision. Long live the king.

One reason to see this show – Wildly successful.