Bruce played the all knowing, all seeing, blind Tiresias. And the Nurse. He presided over the mythical tales, taking over a great deal of the storytelling. He made what could be quite a tedious character highly interesting and entertaining. As the Nurse, he got the biggest laughs from the audience, and constantly had the cast in fits of laughter in rehearsals!
James played the lead role in "Ovid" to great acclaim; people throughly enjoyed being intimidated, shocked, and moved by his character, who loved his wife, but just couldn't keep his hands to himself, and had a tendancy to turn into a raunchy sailor (as Lycabus!). James treated Hughes' character with great respect and had a very clear understanding of the poet's mindset and motivations in the play.
Why hello! I'm Gwen and I'm studying English and Creative Writing. In this particularly delicious production I am transformed into a spider, assist in ripping a man who has been transformed into a boar into pieces, and try to seduce a boy, but end up merging with him and turning into a hermaphrodite - not the best end to a date.
I've been in a number of productions prior to Ovid - mostly ensemble work adapting literature to the stage.
Heya, I'm Claire and my character tremedously enjoys: swinging, having sex, having more sex, transforming Myrrha into a tree, being a lewd sailor, ripping Pentheus to shreds and eating his entrails, burning Semele, weaving, transforming minerva into a spider, being various dirty old women, ripping my lovely son and cooking him, and finally, dying.
"Where does life end and art begin?" was the question asked by the cast of Ted
Hughes’ Tales from Ovid chose to explore, but the question posed for those
who came to see the play in The Cooler last week seemed more to be “where
does the audience end and the play begin?” Entering into a darkened space
with the lights already up and the actors dancing in intimate couples on
both levels of the stage, it was as if we were intruding late into a
mellow and tranquil scene, an atmosphere which was soon cut by a shout of
pain issued by James Marvin’s Ted Hughes/ Jupiter as his wife Sylvia bites
his lip, setting the scene for the inextricably linked passion and
violence which was to follow.
“Using Tim Supple’s engaging adaptation of Ted Hughes’ Tales from Ovid,
Hannah Pidsley and Katy Whitehead’s production focused on the classic
tragedy that is Ted Hughes’ and Sylvia Plath’s life together. The tales,
based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, were cleverly transformed into a fantasy
that surrounds the central couple. At the heart of this play was
transformation itself, with the cast of eleven assuming 36 roles, changing
character as many times as their characters changed form. The difficulties
of a production on a tight budget were realising the necessary
transformations in the script as humans change into birds, trees and
flowers. These were realised through simple and stylised gestures; two
branches and a chair symbolised Myrrah’s metamorphosis into a tree,
allowing the audience to concentrate on the look of anguish on her face
rather than her costume.
“The choice of cast appeared flawless and the nature of the play allowed
each member to shine in a prominent role: Sam Smith was especially good as the debauched god Bacchus, playing the part with a listing drunken grace
and jaunty cocked hat. Claire Trevien’s Sylvia/ Juno had a fragility of
mind and movement counter-balanced exactly by James’ violent strength.
Their relationship worked so well as a framing device for the stories that
it would be difficult for anyone who saw the play to see it imagined in
any other way. The passion of the central relationship was brought out not
only in the bed scenes, where the bed was the central object on stage, but
also through violence, as their electrifying relationship turns to
bitterness, resentment and eventually death, demonstrating the shifting identities
and destructive nature of love in it's many forms."
"I rather hope I’m not the only one who noticed the pleasing aptness of the fact that Codpiece’s latest offering, Ted Hughes’ Ovid, is a play, adapted from Hughes’ poetry, adapted from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In fact, the text itself appears to have gone through almost as many transformations as the characters it depicts.
"Weaving the domestic and the fantastical to tell the story of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath’s relationship through the medium of classical mythology seems, if you’ll pardon the phrase, a somewhat epic task, but one that was executed with style and aplomb by both cast and crew.
"Despite not having an Arts Centre budget (which would have been well and truly deserved), the technical effects were sophisticated and well executed, but the real strength of this play does not stem from any technical wizardry, but from the cohesion and strong performances from the cast. I was happy to see that Katy Whitehead, the director, had decided to take a risk, and cast a profusion of fresh faces rather than stick with all the old ones, and I was even more delighted to find that there was not a weak link among them. Ovid seems very much an ensemble piece: being made of so many short tales linked together, the play could easily have descended into a rather bitty affair, but this was very much an ensemble production, and the cast managed to successfully weave all the strands into one cohesive whole. As a result I find it difficult to single out any one member of the cast for praise or blame, with the possible exception of James Marvin, whose performance as Ted Hughes/ Jupiter was powerful, intense and hopefully a good indication of things to come.
"No production is ever flawless, though I think I can say with some certainty that any flaws Ovid exhibited were inconsequential – misbehaving bed-sheets and the like. The energy and effort put into every scene made this a fantastic production, and if you missed it, you should be kicking yourself."