Blue Beard is a nasty man with a nasty plan: he cuts the throats of the women he marries. A fair few have already suffered this grisly fate, and are strung up in one deathly room in Blue Beards house. When the old man goes on a trip, leaving behind all his houses keys including one never to be touched which key should his new wife use but this one, which opens the horrific room? Student theatre company Swink present this old French tale with some aplomb, but there are noticeable fluctuations in acting quality and storytelling styles which let the production down. As I enter the venue, the cast of women sit around the room, wearing white face paint, red lipstick and cream corsets and underskirts. Hanging around the space on strings are sparkly shoes, flowers, a tiny toy doll, and amongst other items, a huge piece of bright blue faux fur and some papier mache, nasty-looking hands. It turns out that the pretty things belonged to past wives, and that the latter two will be donned by the girl playing Blue Beard, who is effectively mounted on anothers shoulders as Blue Beard struts around, making his blue, booming presence felt. So, everything looks quite the macabre-cum-artsy part at the outset. Sadly, Swinks acting does not convey the story particularly well. Much of the tale is told by a group of sock puppets and one (seemingly) shell-fish bra. They all have different accents, for some reason, and one speaks gobbledegook the variety of voices seems a gimmick, and the storytelling itself is often a little melodramatic or stumbling.The show seems intent on mixing humour and foreboding, which is rarely successful. An amusing gobbledegook silhouette show represents the wifes journey to the horrific room of old wives, and as present wife panics that the forbidden key is now covered in blood, we have the re-imagined pop classic Im gonna wash that blood right offa that key. Neither sequence is terribly well executed; both look like they are trying too hard. The company seem to do better with the purposefully scary bits. The image of the strung set of wives is gruesome, as is the vengeful attack which finishes Blue Beard off once and for all.There are moments of appealing theatricality here, but Swink need to command more consistency if Blue Beard is to be a gripping piece of storytelling.
