Through a vagarious and absurd lens, Blue Beard humorously but touchingly portrays women’s hardships, revealing the challenges of their vulnerable situations
Blue Beard is adapted from the 17th-century French folktale Bluebeard. Bluebeard is a wealthy and sinister nobleman who has been married six times to beautiful women, and his wives all mysteriously vanished. In director Emma Rice’s adaptation, Bluebeard (Tristan Sturrock) is portrayed as a magician who attracts his new bride, Lucky (Robyn Sinclair), through his magic performance. Additionally, the narrative introduces the sisters from the Convent of the Three Fs (“fearful, fucked, and furious”), as well as a storyline a boy (Adam Mirsky) searching for his sister (Mirabelle Gremaud). Rice adapted this folktale into a non-naturalistic style play, incorporating elements of musical, magic shows, acrobatics, projections, and other arts.
Before the official start of the play, the stage curtain remains tightly closed, projecting a blue light shape like a starry sky. Actresses dressed as monks in plaid robes and sunglasses are already sitting on stage, getting into character. As the curtain opens, we can see a square space enclosed by scaffolding. There are not many props, the empty stage space gives unlimited possibilities for the play. The hippie monks open the play with a playful and humorous musical performance. The first half of the play mainly tells the story of Lucky marrying Bluebeard, characterized by high energy and rapid pace, incorporating a variety of art forms. Dance, harp, guitar, piano playing, magic, and other performances are overwhelming. The audience continued to be amused by humorous lines and joking performances. Amidst the absurd and humorous plot, there are interjections of dialogue between the boy and the blue-bearded Mother Superior (Katy Owen). Throughout most of the play, the boy sits outside the square space, like an audience observing the events on stage quietly. The Mother Superior intermittently interrupts the performance, narrating and commenting on the actions of the characters. This Brechtian alienation effect makes the audience wonder about the true identities of the two people and start to think about the story on the stage.
By the second act, all becomes clear. The plot quickly reverses, and behind the funny folktale are the women’s challenges for survival. The Mother Superior removes her beard and robe, bursting into tears to express her grief and anger about the loss of her daughter. The boy’s missing sister is shown being followed by a stranger on CCTV. Everything that happened in the first act seems like the mother’s dream. The dream is about ultimate carnival and happiness, but the reality is a series of vulnerabilities faced by women in society, including domestic violence and social insecurity.
This play undoubtedly showcases feminism, calling the audience’s attention to the situation of women, and showing all the possibilities of girls. In Emma Rice’s direction, females can be fresh, energetic, confident, or they can be brave, strong, powerful, but at the same time vulnerable and helpless. Females can embrace life optimistically and enthusiastically, but they may also encounter malice and cruel attacks. At the end of the play, the director expresses her hope for everyone, “Let’s hold hands together and send the girls home.”