GALLATHEA (The Show Must Go Online)****

 

By Megan (she/her)

Link: https://www.patreon.com/TheShowMustGoOnline/posts (you need to sign up as a patreon to watch this show)

Available until: Unknown

The Show Must Go Online has performed all the plays which Shakespeare definitely wrote (though a lot of people would say The Two Noble Kinsmen is definite and other people include Edward III and Sir Thomas More) so now they are performing a classic play by John Lyly.

Gallathea is about two women who fall in love with each other, which doesn’t seem weird at all to me but it was more of a surprise when this play was written. Neptune wants a beautiful girl to be sacrificed and two fathers, Tityrus and Melibeus, are worried that their daughters, Gallathea and Phillida, might be chosen. They dress their daughters up as boys and send them away but they meet and fall in love. At first they think they’ve fallen in love with a boy but then they start to wonder.

I’m quite confused by how I feel about this play. It feels a bit homophobic but it’s also very pro-trans. But I don’t know if I can really have a proper opinion about that. I’m probably straight because I have only liked boys so far and I identify as a girl so maybe I shouldn’t say my opinions about gay, trans or gender issues. Except I think everyone is the gender he, she or they says that he, she or they are. And if someone uses different gender-neutral pronouns like ne, ve, ey, ze or xe, those are nir, vis, eir, hir/zir or xyr pronouns so that is what I want to call nem, ver, em, hir/zir or xem.

I am only ten so it feels rude to call actors by their first names and even ruder to use surnames so I will say Mr, Ms or Mx, but I hope you won’t be cross if yours is not correct. I was going to say ‘if it is not your preferred title’ but then I realised that is wrong because it is not about preferring. ‘Preferred’ is like saying you like chocolate ice-cream better than strawberry but if someone only offers you strawberry, you will be happy with strawberry. But identity is so much more important than ice-cream and pronouns are part of that. If you’re non-binary and someone calls you he or she, you don’t have to be happy with that.

There are captions for this play and Janet Guest is the British Sign Language interpreter. She is brilliant not just as an interpreter but as a performer. You can see the emotions and the personalities in her face. If I had spent the whole play watching Ms Guest, I would still have enjoyed it very much.

Rachel Chung (pronouns she/they) is the director. She seems really lovely and I like their hair. But the most important thing of all is her knowledge and passion about the play and even though I have seen and read it before, I felt like I learned more about the play from listening to them. The production felt like it was really letting the actors have their own ideas and making the relationships beautiful. There are parents and children and friendships as well as Gallathea and Phillida. There are lots of different ways of loving people.

The acting is brilliant and the casting is perfect. Shakira Searle plays Gallathea and I love the way they show Gallathea’s emotional changes through the play. At the start Gallathea seems quite innocent but as the play goes on she learns more about the world and she feels more confident about who she is and what she wants.

Eugenia Low is a TSMGO and Shake-Scene regular and she is so versatile. It is great to see her take a leading role for TSMGO. Phillida changes through the plot too. At first she is really anxious about what she is being asked to do but she copes a lot better than she thinks she will. I also really like the way Phillida and Gallathea connect and the chemistry between them.

Emily Carding is a really magnificent Diana. They have so much personality and presence. I love the way Mx Carding uses language and makes it sound so beautiful but they aren’t just reading a nice poem, they are also playing a really interesting and powerful character. Angel Dumapias plays Venus and it is really exciting seeing the two goddesses onscreen together. Even though I knew what was going to happen the way Ms Dumapias pauses before giving Venus’ opinion on Gallathea and Phillida is a really dramatic moment.

Michelle Kelly makes Eurota into such a fun and interesting character, she likes to have fun but she’s caring. Ms Kelly also plays Hebe and she has a big solo speech and it is really stunning. Betsy Bowman does some incredible pyrotechnics during this scene as Agar, it looks so beautiful and impossible but Ms Kelly is so astounding her performance totally matches the pyrotechnics. I also like the way she uses her voice so her characters sound different.

Eduardo J Pérez Torres is a very charming Rafe. Guido Garcia Luaches characterises Cupid really beautifully and gives us lots of really fun moments. Ella Mock who I know from Shakespeare Happy Hours is brilliant as Telusa and they make Telusa’s monologue really exciting. I really like that Diana’s Nymphs have different personalities. Shamiso Mushambi is really funny as Robin and I like how her other character Larissa is so obedient with Diana but so bossy with Cupid.

Ahd Tamimi and Sawyer Kemp are very different in their roles as the fathers, Tityrus is quite calm about it all and Melibeus is scarier which is great, then they are both totally different as the eccentric Astronomer and the laid back Alchemist. I also like the way Neptune and the Mariner are both played by the same brilliant actor, Dafydd Gwyn Howells. They are very different characters but they are connected because they both know about the sea. Jordy Deelight is really good as Dick and Augar, they show so much about their characters’ personalities with the way they react to everything that happens. It is such a good cast.

Gallathea is a really good play and there is a lot to think about and talk about afterwards too.