Review: BULL IN A CHINA SHOP, National Theatre

The National Theatre is marking the 100th anniversary of women earning the right to vote in the UK with Courage Everywhere, a series of rehearsed readings and events celebrating the milestone. The talented list features Bryna Turner's Bull in a China Shop.

Directed by Phyllida Lloyd, the comedy is based on the real letters exchanged between Mary Woolley (Fiona Shaw) and Jeanette Marks (Jade Anouka) at Mount Holyoke College in the early 1900s. The 40-year timeline sees Woolley becoming president of the ex-seminar and her younger lover struggling to conform to the establishment while passionately fighting for equality.

Turner analyses the politics and power of the turn of the century with a smirk. Anachronistic language à la Hamilton and lots of feminist humour prevent her play from becoming a static period piece, turning it into an entertaining and surprising show.

It doesn't merely paint a picture of a riotous moment in history; the playwright details the inner workings of the pair, presenting women who need to compromise with the world and with each other. The effervescent first part of the work does, however, come to a brief halt when Turner sets aside political inequality and concentrates the attention solely on their life as a couple.

After the momentary light stagnation of the script, Bull in a China Shop picks up again and its roles go back to being the dynamic bullets seen at the beginning. Lloyd's direction of the reading focuses, as expected, on the text; concurrently, she channels the actresses' powerful deliveries admirably, if one keeps in mind the rushed rehearsal time (one day).

Particularly interesting is the use of velcroed skirts which hide trousers - employed to differentiate their public lives from their private ones on the undressed stage. Just like Woolley wants to turn the "mindless wives" that the seminar had previously built into "fully evolved human beings", the creative team introduces whole characters who aren't merely means to an end.

As with every reading performed as part of Courage Everywhere, a post-show talk ensued. Writer, director and Shaw initially enlightened the crowd showing the internal gears of the piece, but in this case, the audience took the main role and started their own reflection on what progress and courage mean.

The strong-willed women on- and offstage shared their thoughts on how times are and aren't changing, pointing out how tragic it is that we're having the same conversations as Woolley and Marks did a hundred years later. The faint pessimism did, however, slump in the face of a solid group of women willing to fight back.

Courage Everywhere at the National Theatre ends today.

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