Words Apart is a gallant effort from Mustardseed Theatre Company to tackle psychological abuse by boldly peering through the looking glass at famous male and female relationships of the classical literary canon. Sadly the delivery of the message is more condescending than it wants to be due to a script that’s full of holes.
This might be because Words Apart was devised by the company in an unusual way; each of the actors played an iconic female character in fiction and improvised, knowing only their own stories and directed to reveal elements of it at certain points. As a result, although the links drawn between storylines are compelling, the overall effect is that it feels like watching separate plays. The characters are Beatrice (Arwen Matthews) from Much Ado About Nothing, Mary Crawford(Hellen Wells Ward) from Mansfield Park, Helen Graham (Antonia Turner) from The Tennant of Wildfell Hall, and Nancy (Nichola Woolley) from Oliver Twist. They all congregate in Paige’s (Scarlett O’Rourke) bedroom; a girl going through college with dreams of studying English at university, but her dreams conflict with the boyfriend who she’s just moved in with.
It’s essentially a cautionary tale because of the way the parallels are drawn. Just because these characters are brought into a fantastical scenario, it doesn’t excuse the holes in Paige’s story. Her boyfriend’s psychological abuse is exposed through reading his texts aloud, and rude language, and high expectations; her situation is glaringly obvious even to her. And although the most significant element of her story is that she’s the only person who can’t see it, this is too dramatically ironic for the audience to digest.
O’Rourke’s performance grows, but is less than convincing. Matthews gets the laughs like Beatrice would, but has more girlish than feminine mannerisms for such a strong character. Similarly, Ward and Wooley possess their characters’ black and white aspects, but feel as though they’ve stepped out of fiction, they’re not fleshed into fully-fledged being, although the acting is admirable. Graham is the best as the statuesque Helen Graham, quietly carrying her tragedy in the most convincing portrait of abuse within a relationship.
The concept of a victim of psychological abuse escaping into the world of fiction and eventually becoming plagued by her own visions is intelligent. However the links between Paige and the characters are stronger with Nancy and Helen; Beatrice and Mary are there more to make a commentary on the values of love and marriage in contrast to the present day and altogether are a slightly random assortment of guests. Director Charlotte Conneely simply expects too much suspension of disbelief from the audience for them to invest as much as they should, in this play which has so much more potential to be hard-hitting.
