Maurice at Above The Stag: Sets and Stagehands
Having just seen the stage production of Maurice at Above the Stag in Vauxhall, I naturally many FEELINGS. Anyone who has had the (mis)fortune to nerd out with me will know that I scribble a lot of notes and never shut up. I am, however unrepentant in subjecting you nerds to my thoughts. I suspect there will be a few rambling posts, so if you follow me for unrelated things like The Expanse, I apologise. But, onwards to the rambling! One of the things this production excelled at was the staging, making imaginative use of stagehands and moveable pieces to reinforce the play’s themes.
This production uses eight actors and all but one - Tom Joyner as Maurice - act as stagehands. During stagehand duties, the actors remain in costume and to a certain extent, in character. This was most noticeable with Tom Elliot Reade as Risley.* Risley’s role is rather brief but he makes an impression. Reade is delightful in the role, but his masterstroke is how reacts to Maurice while employed as stagehand. He looks at Maurice with undisguised longing and gazes directly at him instead of at the set pieces he is charged with moving. There is a lovely moment where he brings Maurice a book for use in the next scene. Rather than place the book down, Reade holds the book out and fixes Maurice with an unmistakably Risley-esque look. When Maurice reaches for the book, it is jerked out of reach. When Reade does relinquish the book is with an arch, knowing expression at seems full of judgement at the way Clive and Maurice will continue to dance around each other in the following scene.
Overall, Reade’s continued performance adds to the sense of unrequited longing suffusing the entire play. This in turn adds poignancy to the soft but acquisitive way that Maurice behaves towards Clive. Maurice is constantly trying to touch Clive, but always brushed off. He continues to reach out, daring to ask for contact and continually chastened for it. This highlights Maurice’s need and capacity for love, how much he yearns for more than Clive is willing to give. Using Reade’s lingering performance to highlight this is both highly effective and efficient use of actors.
The second stagehand especially well utilised is Leo Turner as Alec Scudder. As an overly nerdy person going to see this play (of whom I refuse to believe I am the only one!), one is naturally aware of Maurice as a novel and film. And before going to see a play like this (niche interest production at a small LGBT theatre) I think it’s a fair assumption that a good portion of your audience will have pored over the program, well aware of the tall bearded actor in the flat cap. By having Turner pass through various strategic light sources, the eye is drawn to him among the other stagehands. By the time Alec actually appears as a character, he is already part of our awareness. Part of the fabric of the world. As Forster wrote in his Terminal Note to Maurice,** Alec must be inserted gradually into the narrative until he becomes an overwhelming focus. The producers are similarly able to slip him into the consciousness of the audience before we face him as a character.*** This mirrors Maurice’s growing awareness of him. It gives him a gradually increasing magnetism until, as for Maurice, Alec Scudder becomes impossible to ignore.
The use of costumed stagehands adds depth to the world through which Maurice walks, to the texture of the performance. Many scenes end with Maurice lost in thought, alone in the centre of the stage. In these moments he was surrounded by shadows, by people striding past without acknowledging his presence. It gave a wonderful sense of his isolation, confusion and doubt as to his place in the world. Just as Maurice’s homosexuality cuts him off from the humanity around him, his emotional isolation is made physical through use of the stagehands. Maurice is alone and what’s worse, he is alone among the very humanity with whom he wishes to form those essential connections.
*Reade was also one of the only actors not to feature in a double role, perhaps this was the producers’ way of making full use of his talent.
**included in most editions of the novel.
***more on Alec’s onstage introduction in another post - as yet unwritten! I told you, I never shut up.
‘He looks at Maurice with undisguised longing and gazes directly at him instead of at the set pieces he is charged with moving.’ :))) With more delightful lingering appraisal of Maurice by Risley when in character: ‘WHO’S THIS?’
‘I think it’s a fair assumption that a good portion of your audience will have pored over the program, well aware of the tall bearded actor in the flat cap. By having Turner pass through various strategic light sources, the eye is drawn to him among the other stagehands.’ SO, SO GOOD; OH YES.
NEVER apologise for nerding out copiously, OMG no! ESPECIALLY not about this glorious production and its astonishing cast. <3333 And ESPECIALLY not when your notes and observations are SO GOOD. Looking forward to more.
Please ramble about like there's no tomorrow! All of us, poor souls, who never got a chance to see the real thing need it badly!
So, it was perfect in every possible way, right?
@allez-argeiphontes your last paragraph is enough to break my heart into tiny, tiny bits... Maurice's loneliness throughout a good part of the story is - at least I believe it is - one of the most important things in the novel, and it is beautifully shown in the film as well. So, it was absurdly perfect, I can see...
Thanks for sharing this. I'm going to get up and go to work now, my soul bawling it's eyes out like a baby.
