Golden Girls | |
---|---|
Written by | Louise Page |
Date premiered | 20 June 1984 |
Place premiered | The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon |
Original language | English |
Setting |
|
Golden Girls is a 1984 play by Louise Page.
Plot
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.[2]
Cast and characters
Character | Description | Original cast | London cast |
---|---|---|---|
Josette Simon | |||
Alphonsia Emmanuel | |||
Katherine Rogers | |||
Kate Buffery | |||
Cathy Tyson | |||
Kenneth Branagh | |||
Jimmy Yuill | |||
George Raistrick | |||
Polly James | |||
Derek Crewe | |||
Norman Henry | |||
Jan Revere |
History
Background and development
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."[4]
The central role of a black runner drew on Simon's own experience of being an athlete; the play's author, Louise 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".[5]
Productions and legacy
Golden Girls was first staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company at The Other Place, directed by Barry Kyle, premiering on 20 June 1984.[3]
The Pit, 29 April to 10 September[6]
1984 https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001180/19840712/110/0011 https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000636/19840720/632/0063
1985 https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001180/19850516/067/0009
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001180/19850523/094/0015 Leeds
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001180/19851107/062/0008 Ipswich
1986
Coventry https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001180/19861030/140/0023
1989 https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001180/19890413/089/0015
1992 https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001180/19920709/059/0010
1996 Mercury[8] https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001637/19960502/094/0014
Reception
Simon Plays & Players best actress[9]
Starring as Dorcas Ableman was breakthrough role for Josette Simon.[10][5] 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."[11] Ros Asquith of The Observer felt that Simon's performance was amongst the most thrilling in London.[12]
The Daily Telegraph critic Eric Shorter praised the cast's efforts but felt that the play suffered from overly slow pacing.[13]
Critical reception
"the play has intelligence and momentum"[14]
References
- ^ Coveney, Michael (4 June 2020). "Louise Page obituary". The Guardian.
- ^ Sakellaridou 2009
- ^ a b Page 1985, p. Cast list.
- ^ Page 1990, p. 175.
- ^ a b Richards 1993, p. 247.
- ^ Herbert 1986, p. 24.
- ^ "Golden Girls | Theatricalia".
- ^ "Programme for 'Golden girls' by Louise Page".
- ^ "Josette Simon | BBA Shakespeare".
- ^ Rogers 2022, chapter "Rosaline, RSC, 1984", search phrase "Dorcas Ableman".
- ^ Coveney, Michael (21 June 1984). "The Arts: Golden Girls/The Other Place". Financial Times. p. 23.
- ^ Asquith, Ros (12 May 1985). "Short back and throat". The Observer. p. 17.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Gussow, Mel (12 August 1984). "Stratford keeps its kingly standards". The New York Times. p. 2.5.
Books
- Branagh, Kenneth (1991). Beginning. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312058225.
- Eisen, Kurt (1996). "Louise Page". In Demastes, William W. (ed.). British Playwrights, 1956-1995: a Research and Production sourcebook. Westport: Greenwood Press. pp. 291–300. ISBN 0313287597.
- Herbert, Ian, ed. (1986). "Productions of the Year 1985". London Theatre Record Index 1985. London Theatre Record. p. 24. ISBN 090794504X.
- Page, Louise (1985). Golden Girls. London: Methuen. ISBN 0413579603.
- Richards, Sandra (1993). "The Recent Actress". The Rise of the English Actress. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 230–260. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-09930-6_11. ISBN 978-1-349-09930-6.
- Rogers, Jami (2022). British Black and Asian Shakespeareans: Integrating Shakespeare, 1966–2018 (ebook ed.). London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-350-11293-3.
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:10.33171/dtcfjournal.2019.59.2.8.
- Page, Louise (1990). "Emotion Is a Theatrical Weapon". 6 (22): 174–182. doi:10.1017/S0266464X00004243.
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- Wandor, Michelene (1986). Carry On Understudies: Theatre and Sexual Politics. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.