Epsom Downs Review

Epsom Downs

(Salisbury Playhouse, Salisbury)

The Salisbury Playhouse spring season continues with a play called Epsom Downs. The play premiered in 1977 at the Roundhouse, London, by Max Stafford Clark's Joint Stock. This is an unfamiliar play to me, but the fact that this is was shown at the Salisbury Playhouse was an incentive for me to see it.

To start off there is no straightforward plot line to this play. To describe the play I would like to refer to William Powell Frith's 1858 painting, Derby Day. I was introduced to this during a lecture on leisure, during a university module on Victorian Culture. It shows every member of every layer of the social system intermingling amongst each other during one day of horse racing. This painting was shown at an exhibition, along with other works by Frith, called The Derby and London on the Downs. An article in the programme mentions this painting an and a quote made by Blanchard Gerrold, who put together the exhibition. The quote reads how "the sharp-faced swaggering betting man, the trim, clean groom with a flower in his button-hole, the prosperous, heavy-cheeked tradesman, the ostentatious clerk, the shambling street-singer, the hard, coarse-visaged costermonger, the pale and serious partisan, the frolicsome apprentice in flaming necktie, the bandy-legged jockey, the nouveau riche smug in his ostentation" can be seen on Derby Day.

119 years after the painting was created and it seems as if the atmosphere at at these races has not changed one bit. A cast of 9 each played 3 to 8 different members of society. At a running time of 2 hours and 25 minutes, it is not surprising that most of these characters were broadly represented. What is more, apart from making the occasional statement, such as tipping a load of rubbish onto the ground from above for the local convicts to tidy up at the end of the day, the play did not have anything particular to say. Yet it was clear that the play was providing its own thought-provoking version of Derby Day for the audience to observe.

The main plot strands included a wife (Lorraine Stanley) and husband (Simon Muller) with two bickering kids (Mark Meadows and Frances McNamee) and a decrepit grandfather, who risk their life savings on a horse. A Christian couple (Mark Meadows and Lucy Black) came on to protest against gambling, though the temptation to make money eventually overcomes the man. A gypsy girl (Frances McNamee) is split between her family's values and a stable boy (Ben Wigzell). At the same time the ghost of Emily Davison, the suffragette who got trampled down by the King's Horse at the The Derby in 1913, disdainfully watches the wife act the role that she was campaigning to break away from. Others included a member of the Labour party, some competing bookies, an elitist horse trainer, a Kermit the Frog seller, a tramp, some Lords and Ladies, and the odd drunkard.

Seeing every cast member play a number of different characters was one of the highlights of the play. Another highlight was the race that happened during the second act. Even beforehand the excitement amongst the cast was rising and at times the stage would go dark whilst each character had their moment in the spotlight. During the race, barriers around the racetrack would be brought on and were moved about so the cast would show different people at different areas around the track. There was even a moment when they would play the racers themselves dashing down the track. The tension would increase as the actors leaned forward against the barriers and pushed them forward. Whilst this was going on Paul Slack played a representational the running of the Derby race and gave a commentary on the race itself.

The set for this production is pretty basic. It basically shows the fields surrounding the racetrack. Plaudits to the set design team however for providing a landscape where a sprawling sea of grass rises and dips from the background right into the audience. There were also some nice touches, including a kite and the supporting pegs attached to a marquee tent offstage. However the use of lighting effects to indicate the arrival of some helicopters did look out of place, especially when the sound and wind effects fared well on their own.

The characters may be broad, but then again nobody asks what the story is behined the man in the cream coloured coat and top hat in the Derby Day painting. Like the painting I saw this play as an observation of the Derby at Epsom Downs in 1977, and for what it is I had a great time. It is worth a low Top Price.