You wouldn’t think that a suicidal housewife would make for a particularly entertaining evening, however, in the case of Edward Anthony’s play, Wish I had a Sylvia Plath, it really did. From the first moments of the performance, when she pulls her head out of the gas oven and begins to converse with it (the oven is called Olsen, we soon learn), until the timer goes and her ‘black tar brain soufflé’ is done, Elisabeth Gray is hilarious, tragic and exceptionally entertaining as housewife Esther Greenwood.
In addition to Esther’s monologue, she, her husband, his lover, her mother and father and her children make appearances in an exaggerated and elegant black and white film projected on to the set’s kitchen window. For these segments, Gray provides all of their voices with dramatic effect, bouncing around the recesses of Esther’s memory and breakdown. Esther also features in The Better Tome and Garden Show, (brought on by the third stage hypopoxia, intense hallucinations) where with the support of the Olsen the oven, she leads the audience in preparing 51 liar lasagne (including a Babylonian whore), black tar brain soufflé and a perfect life.
Anthony’s play is based on a fusion of Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar and Plath’s life (the former being largely autobiographical anyway), and features recognisable characters such as Ned Pughes as Esther’s philandering husband (Ted Hughes was Plath’s real-life husband).
Intensely dark and more than a bit manic, Wish I had a Sylvia Plath is also highly satirical (and sometimes downright hilarious). It’s an hour of superb entertainment, though the tragedy of it all may linger long after the house lights have dimmed.
In addition to Esther’s monologue, she, her husband, his lover, her mother and father and her children make appearances in an exaggerated and elegant black and white film projected on to the set’s kitchen window. For these segments, Gray provides all of their voices with dramatic effect, bouncing around the recesses of Esther’s memory and breakdown. Esther also features in The Better Tome and Garden Show, (brought on by the third stage hypopoxia, intense hallucinations) where with the support of the Olsen the oven, she leads the audience in preparing 51 liar lasagne (including a Babylonian whore), black tar brain soufflé and a perfect life.
Anthony’s play is based on a fusion of Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar and Plath’s life (the former being largely autobiographical anyway), and features recognisable characters such as Ned Pughes as Esther’s philandering husband (Ted Hughes was Plath’s real-life husband).
Intensely dark and more than a bit manic, Wish I had a Sylvia Plath is also highly satirical (and sometimes downright hilarious). It’s an hour of superb entertainment, though the tragedy of it all may linger long after the house lights have dimmed.