The TakeOver festival at the York Theatre Royal has introduced some really dynamic talent to the fray, and none more gutsy than Katharine Markwick in her subtly dark interactive play, Breakfast in Bed. The scene is set amongst a series of tables which display the height of chintzy chic, reminiscent of post-war drawing rooms across the country. As the only player of the piece, Katharine Hardwick is solely responsible amongst a fairly bare set to create all of the tension as she begins her yarn (literally, this is good solid WI territory). We, the audience, as guests in her parochial B’n’B are guided through Carol’s life of quiet desperation over “breakfast”. Much like a Greek tragedy, all of the action has taken place offstage, and we are left to decipher the dark intent beneath the stagnant small talk of Carol, the unfulfilled and frustrated widow.
The master-stroke in involving the audience adds to the awkwardness of the ambience. Having myself been subjected to having Weetabix plonked in front of me and frequently being drawn into small talk by the leading lady, it’s easy to note that Katharine would be an excellent master of ceremonies, neatly turning the audience’s age, looks and names into neat rapport as the bumbling and graceless Carol, unaware of her own ridiculous frumpiness and clumsiness, always remains sympathetic and familiar rather than pathetic and downtrodden. The evil becomes more apparent as a running thread through this comedy of manners, and the change in that balance of power we perceive in the relationship between Carol and her husband as she reveals herself gradually from restrained old lady to something triumphantly different is one that we sense and are yet shocked at, a testament to Markwick’s flair for the appearance of mundanity in suburbia.
This is a character accustomed to net curtain twitching in a small world. Her misplaced pride in commonplace local features and detailed knowledge of her neighbours displays a woman sheltered from life’s opportunities who nonetheless runs the gamut of human emotion, from dreaming with wild abandon about simple, pastoral freedom to dormant cunning, waiting and sinister plotting. A woman content to take orders from men but who, through her dastardly ends, is never entirely dominated. I thoroughly enjoyed this play and would recommend it to all.