baba
★★☆☆☆ Unfulfilled
Pleasance Theatre: Thu 12 – Sat 14 Dec 2024
Review by Rebecca Mahar
The Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group brings a new festive folktale to the Pleasance stage this weekend in the form of baba, a new take on the old tales of Baba Yaga and her house on chicken legs. This piece has many ambitions, but falls short of achieving them in its writing and execution.
Written by cmfwood and directed by Hannah Bradley Croall and Claire Wood, baba takes place in the days leading up to Christmas Eve in the Village In The Middle Of Nowhere, when Dmitri D’Yavol (Paul Arendt), the local millionaire who might just be the devil, is throwing a Ball.
Esther Gilvray as Baba, Paul Arendt as Dmitri D’Yavol in baba by cmfwood. Pic: Kate Stephenson
Everyone in the village needs or wants something: young Vasilia (Heidi Fieldhouse), invited to compete at the national BMX championships on Christmas Eve, needs the £16.20 train fare; her older stepsister Serina (Rosella Elphinstone) needs a dress and a love potion for the ball; and Yuri (Flynn Colquhoun), Dmitri’s orphaned nephew, needs a friend; and Merle (Wendy Brindle) needs a reference for her application to MI5.
But nobody knows what Baba Yaga (Esther Gilvray), the woman who is definitely a witch, needs.
The play is a mess of tangled threads as it attempts to tell all these stories and more, without giving itself enough space to fully develop any of them. Amidst the web it works to weave, the script also tries too hard to be funny— there are bits that are genuinely amusing, but they’re drowned by its heavy-handed doses of they’ll-definitely-laugh-at-this attempts at humour.
pacing and directorial issues
It suffers, too, from pacing and directorial issues. The energy is near-universally low, with gaps long enough to drive lorries through between line after line. The extended opening scene, in particular, with the entire village gathered (and mostly arranged in a line) onstage could have been significantly faster —and funnier— with some work on picking up cues.
Wendy Mathison, Richard Godden, Aoife, Claire Morand, Serena Park, Maria Rasinkangas and Rebekka Puderbaugh. Pic: Kate Stephenson
The script frequently feels that it wants to be snappy and clip along, but has not been executed well. The staging problems continue intermittently throughout. Some scenes are dynamic and well arranged; others consist of lines of people on the stage. There are many awkward transitions.
There are some flashes of brilliance from the cast. Arendt’s Dmitri enlivens any scene in which he appears, the laconic bachelor millionaire hiding a secret soft centre. Dog, a puppet created and performed by Gordon Craig, is marvellous; shaggy and sweet. Craig brings Dog to life with simple, effective puppet work that remains focused and alive whether he’s the centre of attention or not.
Ciara McGuinness is delightful as Vasilia’s money-grubbing stepmother, Marinka; larger than life and utterly committed to her Real Housewives-type persona, she is the comedienne of the piece, clearly partially inspired by Mrs. Malaprop. Baba’s flock of blackbirds, women seeking refuge in her house, work well as a group, with highlights from Hilary Spiers as Raven, and Wendy Brindle as Merle.
messaging
The major let-down in baba comes from its messaging. It tries and fails to be feminist, working towards the idea that all women are valuable, with voices that deserve to be heard, and that “witch” is just a word used to marginalise women who don’t fit the bill of traditional femininity, youth, beauty, or societal expectations.
Its goals can be inferred from the writer’s programme note and from some lines in the show that are distinctly tell rather than show, but throughout, baba lets itself down.
Madison Turner, Esther Gilvray, Wendy Brindle, Evgenia Kochkina, Hilary Spiers in baba by cmfwood. Pic: Kate Stephenson
In the first act, the audience is treated to such lines as “She’s not really a woman, is she?” with reference to a character called Lady Farmer (Claire Morand), who dresses in clothing appropriate to her work, and “Darling, you cannot wash away ugly,” by Marinka in reference to the blackbirds; along with rampant favouritism within Vasilia’s family towards her two older, very femme stepsisters, and a misogynistic lecture by the three “wise men” (played with suitable self-importance by Brian Thomson, Richard Godden, Brian Neill) who guard Baba Yaga’s house.
This being the first act, one could be persuaded that this is all setup to reversal and subversion of tropes in the second half. Unfortunately, this does not occur.
cringers
Instead, the audience is treated to such cringers as “I am not gay” “But you’re a farmer, that’s a man’s job”; “So you’re a farmer, you’re a lady, and you’re absolutely, definitely not a gay?”; “Oh, it’s the wee girl who acts like a boy,” and “She’ll need more than a potion to make someone love her”. It’s worth noting that these quotes come from characters of all genders, representing both internal and external prejudice.
Ciara McGunniess, Dan Sutton, Rosella Elphinstone and Eirini Stamkou. Pic: Kate Stephenson
While the theory is that these insults and expectations are all defied, the script is not up to the task. When Vasilia manages to trick the three wise men into abandoning their posts by using their expectations of her gender against them, she then immediately gives up on getting past Baba’s bone fence, after which Dog saves the day, Yuri then comes up with the magic words to access Baba’s house, and does all the talking once they get inside. Baba points this out and encourages Vasilia to speak for herself— but then immediately interrupts her.
Things don’t get better at the ball: it’s beat after beat of women being pitted against each other, including ridicule of Serina for her work as a beauty influencer, in opposition to the intellectualism of Dmitri’s PA, Sasha (Flora Murray).
prejudice and stereotyping
Lady Farmer defies expectations by turning up appearing traditionally feminine in presentation, with husband Max (Colin Thompson) in tow — a husband who then immediately tries to chat up Serina. Earlier in the play stepmothers have been discussed and how they face prejudice and stereotyping as well, but Marinka is demonised, unredeemed, and pitted against Baba.
Ola Olsinova and Gordon Craig. Pic: Kate Stephenson
Many declarations are made in the ball scene, of support, of coming out, of feminism and victory over the patriarchy. But it is not enough for characters to just suddenly say these things: if we are to believe they’re true, we must see their development happen, not have it pulled out of nowhere, like Vasilia’s offstage and immediately sidelined victory at the BMX, or thrown in for tokenism.
Rather than carrying a strong message of female empowerment, human equity and unity, and defiance of the centuries of shouts of witch! that have spelled death and isolation for so many women, baba is sadly littered with misogynistic “jokes”, unearned romance, and unfulfilled promises.
Running time: Two hours and 20 minutes (including one interval)
Pleasance Theatre, 60 Pleasance, EH8 9TJ.
Thu 12 – Sat 14 December 2024
Evenings: 7pm; Sat mat: 3pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
The set for baba by cmfwood. Pic Kate Stephenson
The set for baba by cmfwood. Pic Kate Stephenson
ENDS
