Preview: Speaking Like Magpies, Swan Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference."I'd expected Frank to explore the legitimacy of terrorism, and that he might display a more Catholic-sympathetic position than the history books take. But what he's written is much more provocative and complex: a kind of mystic investigation of what differentiates a Catholic and Protestant sensibility: what does a climate of terror do to people's political and emotional make-up?"
The writer's interest is not so much in the plotters. "He didn't want a play with men in Jacobean hats sitting around a table," says Goold. "What interested him was the prevailing climate of denial and doublespeak. There's this Mephistophelean character called the Equivocator. Although human in form, he's Puck-like: he embodies the spirit of the age, in particular equivocation - telling the truth yet lying at the same time - which is what the Jesuits stood accused of.
"In several scenes characters are interrogated, abused and even tortured. And this erotic, sado-machistic quality has slightly emerged in the fabrics and the textures of the costumes. The Gunpowder Plot emerges as a sort of technologically contemporary reworking of the Jacobean masque. There's a huge amount of music in it. Frank's language is more vernacular than literal, and very dreamlike: it's a wonderful script to work with.
"The resonances with today are all there: the cast doesn't have to force them. Hopefully, the audience will draw its own conclusions."
21 September to 5 November (0870 609 1110)
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments