UK Theatre Network

There was once a deep green paradise full of animals and birds and trees dripping with fruit and it was called Doggerland.

10,000 years ago, at the height of the last Ice Age, Doggerland was a vast plain that stretched from the east coast of Britain to the coasts of The Netherlands, Denmark and North Germany. The so-called land-bridge was a place where people settled as the ice-sheets wasted and northwestern Europe became habitable once more. But, as the ice-sheets retreated further and sea levels rose, the North Sea encroached on the land, eventually separating the British Peninsula from the mainland. In her latest play Debbie Kent who wrote the impressive Bacchaefull, a site-specific adaption of Euripides’ The Bacchae, explores the myth of Doggerland and Celtic mythology.

Three generations of women dwell in a run-down B&B in a dreary seaside town: the elderly and seemingly frail Nan, the middle-aged Bet whose hands are rubbed raw from washing other people’s clothes and the sexy young Rosie who works in a strip club and is the provider of the family. Nan’s and Bet’s rather uneventful lives are only interrupted by Rosie’s occasional visits. One day she arrives with her new boyfriend Jonny who is on the run, it is not clear from whom. Rosie is planning to hide him in Nan’s house but Nan does not appreciate male tenants after her last lodger ended up biting the hand that fed him. 

The most fascinating aspect of this play is that it starts out as a domestic drama and then takes a completely different turn. Doggerland is a comic tragedy with touches of Pinter set in the aftermath of Armageddon. The three female characters bring to life the Morrigan, a tripartite Irish goddess of war, fate and fertility who decides who lives and dies on the battlefield. Each woman represents one aspect of the Morrigan.

Georgina Sowerby is impressive as the nurturing Bet who seems resigned to her fate as a carer feeding Rosie’s foundling rabbits and giving Nan foot massages. Jean Apps is fascinating when changing from the seemingly helpless Nan to a warlike creature. There are also good performances by Sophie Walton as Rosie and Scott Hinds as Jonny. The claustrophic and unsettling production is aptly directed by Neil Smith.     

Barons Court Theatre, 28a Comeragh Road, Barons Court, London, W14 9HR

Until 1st August 2010, 7.30 pm
Tickets: £12 (concessions £10)

Box Office: 020 8932 4747