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Golden Girls (play)

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For the 1950s play, see The Golden Girls (play).
Golden Girls
Written byLouise Page
Date premiered20 June 1984
Place premieredThe Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon
Original languageEnglish
Setting
  • England
  • Athens

Golden Girls is a 1984 play by Louise Page that was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and was first performed at The Other Place, premiering on 20 June 1984, directed by Barry Kyle. Although Page's writing received a mixed critical reception, Kyle's direction was generally praised, and Josette Simon's performance as Dorcas Ableman was acclaimed. The play addresses numerous themes including unfair treatment of women in sport, the difficulties of balancing a personal life with being an elite sportsperson, racism in advertising, and the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport.

Plot

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The British national women's hundred-metres relay team is currently training for an international event in Athens, with their coach and medical staff on hand. The team is sponsored by a cosmetics firm seeking to boost its sales. To enhance performance, the team doctor informs the athletes that they are being administered a new, undetectable fortifying drug, Hydromel. However, on the day of the event, the most ambitious of the athletes, Dorcas, decides to exceed the prescribed dose and is subsequently caught. Although the team wins the race, a scandal erupts. Dorcas receives a lifetime ban, but her ambition continues to haunt her.[1]

Cast and characters

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A full-face photograph of a man
Kenneth Branagh (pictured in 2009) played Mike Bassett
Cast and characters of Golden Girls
Character Description Original cast[a][2] London cast[3]
Dorcas Ableman black athlete Josette Simon
Muriel Farr black athlete Alphonsia Emmanuel
Pauline Peterson white athlete Katharine Rogers
Sue Kinder blonde white athlete Kate Buffery Sarah Berger
Janet Morris black athlete Cathy Tyson
Mike Bassett white athlete Kenneth Branagh Martin Jacobs
Laces Mackenzie coach Jimmy Yuill
Vivien Blackwood doctor Jennifer Piercey
Noël Kinder Sue Kinder's father George Raistrick
Hilary Davenport sponsor Polly James
Tom Billbow journalist Derek Crewe
Hotel porter white Norman Henry
The golden girl everything the name suggests Jan Revere

History

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Background and development

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Golden Girls was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).[4] Author Louise Page later reflected that writing Golden Girls, with a cast twice the size of what she had previously written, "was quite difficult ... I sort of assumed it was going to be half the number of lines for twice the number of people – but it does not work that way at all! And I had to learn to write exit lines. One of the problems with having a lot of characters on stage is how you get them off again."[5] Kenneth Branagh wrote in his autobiography that before the script was available, as many of eight of his fellow cast members were under the impression that they were playing the lead.[6] He recalled that on the first day of rehearsals, the script had still not arrived, and as rehearsals progressed, "Louis's re-writes were arriving very slowly, and everyone was desperately throwing their weight around and implying that they might leave at any moment. The actors felt betrayed, Louise felt persecuted, and [director] Barry. I'm sure, felt both".[7] Branagh and castmate Jimmy Yuill trained with RSC member and fitness enthusiast Brian Blessed as part of their preparation for roles as athletes, while the actresses playing athletes took sprint training.[8] Despite his concerns about the preparation and his own performance, Branagh considered that the first run of performances were successful, and pleased the audiences.[7]

The central role of the Black runner Dorcas Ableman drew on Simon's own experience of being an athlete; Page later related that the play had been rewritten from an ensemble piece, as "the sheer dynamism Josette brought to the role meant that it was her journey through the play with which the audience identified".[9] The play helped establish Page's reputation as a playwright.[10]

Productions

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Golden Girls was first staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company at The Other Place, directed by Barry Kyle, premiering on 20 June 1984.[2] Kit Surrey was the designer, costumes were by Allan Watkins, music was by Ilona Sekacz, and lighting was by Wayne Dowdeswell.[11] The same cast performed the play at the Gulbenkian Studio, Newcastle-upon-Tyne from 18 to 23 March 1985,[12][13] and it transferred, with some cast changes, to The Pit in London, where it played from 29 April to 10 September.[2][3][14] At the Pit, it was commercially successful, playing to near-capacity audiences.[15]

A version amended by Page was presented at the Leeds Playhouse concurrently with the RSC's London run.[16] Later that year, the Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich staged a production.[17] A two-part radio adaptation, written by Page, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 1986.[18] It was directed by Vanessa Whitburn and included Angela Wynter as Dorcas, Terry Molloy as Bassett, and Berger, Emmanuel and Yuill reprising their roles from the stage versions.[18][2][3]

Theatre Calgary presented the play in 1986.[19] Later productions have included those at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry (1986),[20] Perth (1989),[21] The Lilian Baylis Theatre, London (1992),[22] and the Mercury Theatre, Colchester (1996),[23] The play had its American premiere in 1987 with the South Coast Repertory's production.[24]

Themes

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Page commented that she wanted to write a play about the "politics of sport" and that Golden Girls was "about desire and ambition and the ambition to be absolutely the best."[25] Like her other plays of the early 1980s, Golden Girls was critical of the UK's class system, favouring Socialist values in opposition to the materialistic values of Thatcherism.[10] The play can be regarded as a comedy, as it uses irony while lacking traditional comic themes.[26]

Themes of the play include the unfair treatment of women in sport, the difficulties of balancing a personal life with being an elite sportsperson, racism in advertising, the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport, and sport psychology.[27][28] When the sponsor's representative declares that the team should be mainly white, "the resulting dialogue evokes the anti-Apartheid mood of the time, which saw South African teams banned from international competitions."[10]

Reception

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Page's writing of Golden Girls received a mixed critical reception, while the response to Kyle's direction was largely positive.[4] The Daily Telegraph critic Eric Shorter praised the cast's efforts but felt that the play suffered from overly slow pacing,[29] while Mel Gussow of The New York Times wrote that "the play has intelligence and momentum"[30]

Sheridan Morley of Punch, The Mail on Sunday's Nicholas de Jongh, and Gussow commended the interplay of multiple themes.[4][31] The Times critic Irving Wardle felt that although the play kept a coherent narrative despite the various themes, but it was "hard to see what the play id driving at."[32] Ros Asquith in The Observer[33] Jim Hiley of The Listener and Anne McFerran of Time Out complained that there were too many strands in the play.[4][31]

Starring as Dorcas Ableman was a breakthrough role for Josette Simon.[34][9] Her performance was "unanimously praised" according to the literature scholar Kurt Eisen;[4] she won the Plays & Players magazine award for best actress[35] The Financial Times reviewer Michael Coveney wrote that "The immense power and beauty of this actress is at last given proper opportunity by the RSC."[36] Ros Asquith of The Observer felt that Simon's performance was among the most thrilling in London.[37]

Golden Girls was one of twelve nominees for the 1985 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for a woman playwright writing in English.[38] In his 2020 obituary of Page, published in The Stage, Michael Quinn wrote that Golden Girls was Pages' "greatest success" and that it "ambitiously addressed a plethora of personal and political issues associated with high-profile sports tournaments."[39]

Notes

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  1. ^ At The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon; and Gulbenkian Studio, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

References

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  1. ^ Sakellaridou 2009
  2. ^ a b c d Page 1985, p. Cast list.
  3. ^ a b c "RSC Performances: Golden Girls". Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Archived from the original on 20 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e Eisen 1996, p. 294.
  5. ^ Page 1990, p. 175.
  6. ^ Branagh 1991, p. 152.
  7. ^ a b Branagh 1991, p. 153.
  8. ^ Branagh 1991, pp. 152–153.
  9. ^ a b Richards 1993, p. 247.
  10. ^ a b c Naffis-Sahely, André (2010). "Louise Page". British Council Literature. Archived from the original on 20 May 2024. Retrieved 20 May 2024.
  11. ^ "Theatre Week". the Stage. 14 June 1984. p. 7.
  12. ^ "RSC Performances: Golden Girls". Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Archived from the original on 4 July 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  13. ^ Isaacs, David (19 March 1985). "First prize for these runners". Newcastle Journal. p. 3.
  14. ^ Herbert 1986, p. 24.
  15. ^ Bierley, Stephen (10 May 1985). "Golden track record". The Guardian. p. 13.
  16. ^ Reyner, R.L. (23 May 1985). "Bending the rules". The Stage. p. 15.
  17. ^ "Girls going all out for gold". The Stage. 7 November 1985. p. 8.
  18. ^ a b "The Afternoon Play: Golden Girls: Part 1". BBC Programme Index. 3 May 1986. Archived from the original on 4 July 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  19. ^ Zimmerman, Kate (23 April 1986). "TC plans contemporary season". Calgary Herald. p. D6. Archived from the original on 4 July 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ FitzGerald, Anne (30 October 1986). "Bright girls run away with the gold medals". The Stage. p. 23.
  21. ^ Fulton, Graham (13 April 1989). "Perth: Golden Girls". The Stage. p. 15.
  22. ^ "Theatre Week". The Stage. 9 July 1992. p. 10.
  23. ^ Mullen, Liz (2 May 1996). "Colchester: Golden Girls". The Stage. p. 14.
  24. ^ Wong, Herman (16 July 1987). "South Coast rep to premiere two plays". Los Angeles Times. p. VI.7. Archived from the original on 21 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ de Jongh, Nicholas (4 May 1984). "Golden girl". The Guardian. p. 11 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ Öğütcü 2019, p. 872.
  27. ^ Bartleet 2021, p. 375.
  28. ^ Öğütcü 2019, p. 871.
  29. ^ Shorter, Eric (22 June 1984). "Athletics at a jog". The Daily Telegraph. p. 13. Archived from the original on 19 April 2023. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  30. ^ Gussow, Mel (12 August 1984). "Stratford keeps its kingly standards". The New York Times. p. 2.5. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
  31. ^ a b Herbert, Ian, ed. (24 April 1984). "Golden Girls". London Theatre Record. pp. 397–399.
  32. ^ Wardle, Irving (30 April 1985). "All that blisters". The Times. p. 10.
  33. ^ Asquith, Ros (12 May 1985). "Short back and throat". The Observer. p. 17. Archived from the original on 4 June 2023. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
  34. ^ Rogers 2022, chapter "Rosaline, RSC, 1984", search phrase "Dorcas Ableman".
  35. ^ "Josette Simon". BBA Shakespeare. Archived from the original on 4 July 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  36. ^ Coveney, Michael (21 June 1984). "The Arts: Golden Girls/The Other Place". Financial Times. p. 23.
  37. ^ Asquith, Ros (12 May 1985). "Short back and throat". The Observer. p. 17. Archived from the original on 4 June 2023. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
  38. ^ "untitled article". The Times. 18 February 1985. p. 15.
  39. ^ Quinn, Michael (18 June 2020). "Louise Page". the Stage. p. 32.

Books

Journal articles

  • Bartleet, Carina (2021). "Backpages 31.3: In Memoriam: Louise Page (1955- 2020)". Contemporary Theatre Review. 31 (3): 364–379. doi:10.1080/10486801.2021.1935026.
  • Öğütcü, Murat (December 2019). "The Politics of Sports in Louise Page's Golden Girls". Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi. 59 (2): 871–882. doi:10.17613/vce2-er30.
  • Page, Louise (1990). "Emotion Is a Theatrical Weapon". New Theatre Quarterly. 6 (22): 174–182. doi:10.1017/S0266464X00004243.
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