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Preview by Emma Whitelaw
FOR one night only, Cheeky Maggot Theatre Company will be presenting
a rehearsed reading of an intriguing new play, The Shape Shifter,
by RL Nesvet, at the Hampstead Theatre on April 15.
Dr Gilbert Chesnet 'diagnoses' 18-year-old Alice Barbin (played
by a woman) as a biological male, catalyzing for both a strange
journey through the labyrinth of their gender-segregated, name-obsessed
society.
While Barbin embarks upon a Kafkaesque new life as a man without
a past, Chesnet finds himself unexpectedly attracted to the 'man'
he has determined Barbin to be; and Barbin's former lover, Agathe,
searches for the woman she has lost.
When the assumed boundaries between female and male, medicine
and religion, 'the love of enigma and the enigma of love'; erode,
Chesnet, Barbin, and Agathe all face the disintegration of their
most fiercely defended certainties.
What refuge is there once the very core of who we are is questioned?
This thought-provoking piece forces us to challenge what really
defines us and how happy we are with that definition.
Director, Kelly Wilkinson, is the Education Associate at Hampstead
Theatre, and has worked there for over two years.
After reading a number of scripts, she says she found The
Shape Shifter - which had been sent to her by Cheeky Maggot's
Amber Ager - to be both 'intelligent and relevant'.
"The Shape Shifter is firmly rooted in its historical
basis," she explains.
"Rebecca has taken great care in research of the 19th Century
Barbin, however, The Shape Shifter transcends this historical
figure.
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"It is an exploration of identity, in this case gender,
and questions the role society should play in an individual shaping
her identity.
"These ideas and questions are relevent to all of us. In
production, The Shape Shifter would not be a period piece
with corresponding costumes and set. The design and production
values would reflect the timelessness of its subject matter."
Lucy Davenport, who plays Agathe, can currently be seen in Sylvia
alongside the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, and has also appeared
in Martin Scorsese's Gangs
of New York.
When asked how she got involved with Cheeky Maggot Theatre and
The Shape Shifter she had this to say:
"(Cheeky Maggot) were looking for someone to play Agathe
and asked around at RADA for someone who would be a plausible
nun!"
She describes Agathe as 'a rather marvelously sorted character;
she's not afraid of her own feelings or what society thinks -
a feminist in the making!
"Agathe is a young student in the convent, who is in love
with the central character, Barbin (who, at this stage, everyone
thinks is a young female teacher).
"Their relationship is secretive and very passionate, but
things start to come unstuck when investigations into Barbin's
actual gender mean she has to leave.
"Agathe spends the rest of the play trying to track down
her lover, and I won't reveal what happens when she succeeds!"
The Shape Shifter won the 2002 Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation
Playwriting Award.
The evening is free (although audiences can pay a donation
if they wish), and the performance starts at 7.30pm, on April
15 at The Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage. PLEASE
DO NOT RING THE HAMPSTEAD THEATRE as this is a Cheeky Maggot production
ONLY.
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