The Life and Beth Trailer has arrived!
*footage not representative of actual play…
Lily Allen’s “bitch”-laden feminist war cry might not seem like a natural fit for an Alan Ayckboun play, but one of the things I love about them both is their take on gender politics.
I have a real soft spot for Season’s Greetings. Bernard’s explosive rant at Harvey perfectly encapsulates the divide between those who do and those who carp from the sidelines. But it was written at the tail end of the 1970s and it shows. It’s difficult for someone who grew up in an a culture where divorce had become socially acceptable, and where women had greater financial independence than ever, to understand why some of these women stayed with their husbands.
In Life and Beth we see what happens when two women are granted a second chance at independence through widowhood. One chooses to switch her dependency to her brother and, after his death, to the local Vicar. The other? Well that would spoil the ending.
Although Mr Ayckbourn limits himself to a couple of “buggers” and a “bloody,”** the trailer imagines the internal mental landscapes of Beth, Connie and Ella. I had a lot of fun letting these women’s Freudian ids loose. I hope you enjoy the result.
**Whereas I’ve not yet done a count of the “bitches” in the song. It’s more than several…
Life and Beth 