Riccarton Players

Press, 12 April 1984, Page 8

Riccarton Players

“The Devils,” by John Whiting, directed by Simon Hill for the Riccarton Players, at the Mill Theatre. April 11 to April 21. Running time: 8 p.m. to 10.45 p.m. Reviewed by Gerrit Bahlman.

Set in the town of Loudon, medieval France, this play is raw, brutal, and impressive. It is yet another ambitious production by the Riccarton Players that stretches their resources and extends their talents.

The hero of the play is Urbain Grandier, executed on August 18, 1634, for crimes against the Church and the State. Unrepentent after being put to the question, he is burnt at the stake. Grandier dies accused of being the representative of Satan and the source of the possession of the cloistered nuns of St Ursula.

The play explores the frailties of the man as a priest, with his penchant for seduction and his political naivety which exposes him to the will of the French State dominated at that time by Cardinal Richelieu. The plot is broken into three main segments: the life of Grandier the lusty priest, the possession of the nuns of St Ursula, and his

torture and execution. The lusty, physical sense of debauchery is redolently conveyed by script and staging. Doug Clarke as Grandier lacked the macho aspect required to be convincing here but more than made up for this in the latter part of the play when his passion and expressiveness rescued the production from a tendency toward satire.

The weakest facet of the production lay in the possession scenes where the nuns were asked to writhe about the floor, scuffling like irreverent naughty five-year-olds. Credibility slipped away as other characters were asked to overcome the puerile cacophony. The hysteria appeared too contrived and verged on the amusing.

Ruth Bijl as the Mother Superior gave an energetic and well sustained performance which never lost the edge of truth. Her schizoid delivery conveyed the frustration and loneliness of a woman trapped in an isolated institution with no outlet for her passion. The realisation of the harm she had done to a man she desired was a focus of the drama.

The political aspect of the

play was delivered by Richard Capstick, as the Loudon governor, and Ross Gumbley on the one hand with Colin Brown as the exorcist priest and the French court on the other.

Richelieu (Dennis Ritchie) wished to centralise the power of the provincial towns. Grandier was seen as a principled opponent to this.

The production employed more than 20 performers making recognition of all of them difficult. Notable performances by Ross Gumbley, Martin Phelan, Glenda Cooke, Jason Ealey, Howard Thompson, Mathew Evans, and Ondine Claridge testified to the growing strength of the Riccarton Players company. Ondine Claridge as the young innocent seduced by Grandier evoked considerable sympathy with her rejection on becoming pregnant “The Devils” is a powerful production which used a variety of music ranging from grand opera to Bach and strong visual effects produced by lighting, such as the grills in the prison scene and the burning at the stake. Yet the over-all effect was simplicity. An ambitious production by a developingtheatre group.