The actors in a play are the medium through which discourse between the playwright and the audience is achieved. The play becomes a stand-alone work, resting on the boundary of the cognizance of its spectators and the intention of its author. In ‘The Realm of Love’, this was utterly undermined by a ludicrously self-indulgent twenty-minute (out of fifty total) Q&A with the author in which she proudly stated there was no philosophical direction to her play, and that it was all “inspired by this dream” she’d had. While the play itself was reasonably watchable, if a little repetitive, any potentially interesting interpretations were stifled by Karyn Traut’s apparently obsessive maternal compulsion to make any post-play discussion go through her.
Sweet Grassmarket, 4 – 14 Aug, 12.20pm (1.10pm), £7.00 – £9.00, fpp291.
tw rating 2/5
[sj]
Sections: by Samuel Johnston - ED2011 Theatre Reviews - tw rating 2/5 | Tags: Sweet Venues
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Robert Vance
