The World’s Wife – Barbican

Clad in red, sitting on blocks shaped like the roof of a house, the Ragazze Quartet sit while Baritone Lucia Lucas stands leaning against the roof with her back to the audience. The sound of one violin and Lucia Lucas’ baritone radiates through the theatre. We don’t see her sing, all we see are the choreographed responses of the rest of the Ragazze Quartet. For the entirety of the performance we are immersed in a production where words, sound, and movement are in conversation with one another as they tell us the stories of women hidden from history.

The performance The World’s Wife is based on and named after the book of collection of poems by Carol Ann Duffy’s. It includes the poems The Little Red Cap, Pilate’s Wife, Salome, Mrs. Icarus, Medusa, Mrs Aesop, Anne Hathaway, Mrs Beast, Queen Herod, and Demeter. The score also includes texts from interviews as an epilogue. One poem bleeds into the next, each with musical score influenced by female composers not given due recognition owing to misogyny. Tom Greene (Musical Director) thus pays homage to female composers such as Francesca Caccini, Barbara Strozzi Clara Schumann, and Elisabeth Lutyens, who deserve(d) more acknowledgement, through today’s female musicians and Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry

“Just as the body is shaped for movement, the mind is shaped for poetry”, says Jeanette Winterson in her article published in the guardian on Carol Ann Duffy’s book of poems The World’s Wife. In her direction, Jorinde Keesmaat takes seriously how the body is used in the telling of the stories. The 5 performers interact with one another through their gaze, touch, and laughter. They strike poses and move across the stage drawing scores with their bodies. The production uses many elements to add to the sound and visual storytelling – the detachable set, buckets of water, bags of dirt and the water and dirt itself are used in the telling of many poems in a multitude of ways. These elements are used to enhanced the storytelling as well as to add to the sound scape of the piece. The musical score includes simple techniques such as blowing on violin strings, to more technical musical pieces and the use of looping. The performers add percussion by tapping on buckets, they change the atmosphere of the piece by pouring buckets of water into one of the stage blocks, humming, or even simply using their breath. One of the members of the Quartet helps wash dirt off Lucia’s body after she flings bags of dirt across the stage and moves through them creating a score of her movement showing rage and agony. In Demeter the performers curl into mounds of dirt and caress it. Movements add a whole new affective dimension to this Opera making it an unforgettable experience.

The World’s Wife has something for lovers of literature, music, theatre, and dance alike. The music, text, and poetry are entangled to form a rich and coherent piece. The performance doesn’t turn the poetry into song but rather finds a way to music the poetry while being mindful of the bodies on stage as a necessary way of layering meaning in the stories. It’s political importance makes it that much more an important work for all audiences. The performance played for one night only at Milton Court theatre (Barbican). It runs for approximately 100 minutes, with no interval.

Reviewer: Anisha Anantpurkar
Reviewed: 3rd May 2023
North West End UK Rating: ★★★★★