Scarlet Theatre, The Fruit Has Turned to Jam in the Fields

Review in Issue 8-2 | Summer 1996

Gladys, Fiona and Elizabeth are three bedraggled, eccentric young women. They are librarians during the Second World War. The Fruit Has Turned to Jam in the Fields is set in a library in a scenario reminiscent of Dads' Army. Scarlet Theatre weave their way through a bizarre and ridiculous text with remarkable ease and physical dexterity as they hop in and out of two wardrobes and a chest of drawers. Hiding from the horror of war and laughing through the pain of fear, hunger and loss, the three women react and inter-react humorously. As they suck on an old English humbug and grab it backwards and forth between them, the desperate neediness of a child is powerfully evoked. From the beginning an absurdist approach is established, which makes the distinctions between the play's serious dramatic moments and the comic ones unclear. Often the audience are left unsure of how to react. As a whole this is an unusual and bizarre piece with moments of quirky humour and confusion.

Presenting Artists
Presenting Venue
Date Seen
  1. Apr 1996

This article in the magazine

Issue 8-2
p. 23