The Wedding Speech – Purple Moon Drama / VAULT Festival, London

A passionate monologue about mother-daughter relationships, The Wedding Speech sees Rosemary confide in her audience about all the emotions and complexities that big family occasions entail.

The Wedding Speech

It’s a busy week on the Salterton Arts Review, which seems to bring with it some interesting synergies. We recently covered The Beach House, a play about female relationships where I was talking about key moments that happen offstage. Today The Wedding Speech is under discussion. It’s a play about female relationships (specifically mother-daughter) where… you guessed it.

The Wedding Speech is about Rosemary (Princess Donnough). She is at her mother’s wedding, and has been asked to give a speech. Things haven’t always been smooth between them. In fact, Rosemary is struggling with the aftermath of her mother’s unprocessed trauma and how it shaped her personality for good and ill. Is this speech her opportunity to speak her mind and reclaim her power?

Playwright Cheryl May Coward-Walker uses audience interaction to great effect. Rosemary frequently breaks the fourth wall as she psyches herself up for her big moment over the course of an hour, and expects something in return. It creates a sensation of intimacy as we provide reassurance, raise a toast. This simple device helps to make the tone conversational. I found a tension, however, with the fact that the play is partly written in verse. For me the best moments are those which are free-flowing, while the artifice of verse created a certain distance. It reminded me of a Shakespearean soliloquy. Not bad, but less in the moment.

Heading

The Wedding Speech is presented by Purple Moon Drama. In a format that reminds me somewhat of Intermission Youth Theatre, Purple Moon Drama offer young people a programme that not only gives them a leg up into careers in the arts, but benefits them in everyday life. After all, if you can get up on a stage, a boardroom presentation or other professional setting should be no problem. This is my first time seeing their work, but The Wedding Speech seems a good introduction. It’s an engaging play: those moments of distance I mentioned above are balanced by moments where Donnough as Rosemary completely unleashes and becomes transcendent. Director Simone Watson-Brown takes smart risks which pay off, making clever use of the stage and the space beyond it. The set design by Paula Chitty is simple but effective. Simple but effective is actually a good summary of the production overall.

It’s not easy for Rosemary to talk about the ways that her relationship with her mother fail to meet society’s picture perfect expectations. It’s a tough subject, and The Wedding Speech handles the theme of co-dependency sensitively. In the background is a desire for intergenerational healing. Having bonded with her through the fourth wall of her wedding venue bathroom, by the end of the play we are rooting for Rosemary to achieve this.

This is my first VAULT review since the unfortunate announcement that this is its last year in its current venue. This really is a shame: The Wedding Speech is at the Network Theatre next door, but I struggle to think of other spaces in central London that can support this kind of fringe experience. I suggest you get booking, therefore, and make the most of VAULT and works like this while you can!

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 3/5

The Wedding Speech on until 24 February at VAULT, with a run at Soho Theatre from 1-2 March