Golden Girls | |
---|---|
Written by | Louise Page |
Date premiered | 20 June 1984 |
Place premiered | The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon |
Original language | English |
Setting |
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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.[1]
Cast and characters
Character | Description | Original cast[a][2] | London cast[3] |
---|---|---|---|
Dorcas Ableman | black athlete | Josette Simon | Josette Simon |
Muriel Farr | black athlete | Alphonsia Emmanuel | Alphonsia Emmanuel |
Pauline Peterson | white athlete | Katharine Rogers | Katharine Rogers |
Sue Kinder | blonde white athlete | Kate Buffery | Sarah Berger |
Janet Morris | black athlete | Cathy Tyson | Cathy Tyson |
Mike Bassett | white athlete | Kenneth Branagh | Martin Jacobs |
Laces Mackenzie | coach | Jimmy Yuill | Jimmy Yuill |
Vivien Blackwood | doctor | Jennifer Piercey | Jennifer Piercey |
Noël Kinder | Sue Kinder's father | George Raistrick | George Raistrick |
Hilary Davenport | sponsor | Polly James | Polly James |
Tom Billbow | journalist | Derek Crewe | Derek Crewe |
Hotel porter | white | Norman Henry | Norman Henry |
The golden girl | everything the name suggests | Jan Revere | Jan Revere |
History
Background and development
Golden Girls was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company.[4] [[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]
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".[6]
The play helped establish Page's reputation as a playwright.[7]
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.[2] Kit Surrey was the designer, costumes were by Allan Watkins, musi was by Ilona Sekacz, and lighting was by Wayne Dowdeswell.[8] The same cast performed the play at the Gulbenkian Studio, Newcastle-upon-Tyne from 18 to 23 March 1985,[9][10] and it transferred, with some cast changes, to The Pit in London, where it played from 29 April to 10 September.[2][3][11]
Themes
Like Pages's 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.[7]
The play is about women and their ambitions.[7]
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."[7]
Reception
Page's writing of Golden Girls received a mixed critical reception, while the response to Kyle's direction was largely positive.[4] Starring as Dorcas Ableman was breakthrough role for Josette Simon.[12][6] Her performance was "unanimously praised" according to the literature scholar Kurt Eisen;[4] she won the Plays & Players magazine award for best actress[13]
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."[14] Ros Asquith of The Observer felt that Simon's performance was amongst the most thrilling in London.[15]
The Daily Telegraph critic Eric Shorter praised the cast's efforts but felt that the play suffered from overly slow pacing.[16] Mel Gussow of The New York Times wrote that "the play has intelligence and momentum"[17]
Notes
- ^ At The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon; and Gulbenkian Studio, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
References
- ^ Sakellaridou 2009
- ^ a b c Page 1985, p. Cast list.
- ^ a b "RSC Performances: Golden Girls". Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
- ^ a b c Eisen 1996, p. 294.
- ^ Page 1990, p. 175.
- ^ a b Richards 1993, p. 247.
- ^ a b c d Naffis-Sahely, André (2010). "Louise Page". British Council Literature.
- ^ "Theatre Week". the Stage. 14 June 1984. p. 7.
- ^ "RSC Performances: Golden Girls". Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
- ^ "First prize for these runners". Newcastle Journal. 19 March 1985. p. 3.
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ignored (help) - ^ Herbert 1986, p. 24.
- ^ Rogers 2022, chapter "Rosaline, RSC, 1984", search phrase "Dorcas Ableman".
- ^ "Josette Simon". BBA Shakespeare. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
- ^ 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". New Theatre Quarterly. 6 (22): 174–182. doi:10.1017/S0266464X00004243.
hopefully...
- Wandor, Michelene (1986). Carry On Understudies: Theatre and Sexual Politics. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.