Lola Brecht by Dic Edwards (1995)

Opening Night : October 1995

Venue : Arad Goch

Company

Notes on the Play

This play was written for Castaway.

In 2005 a newlywed couple find themselves in honeymoon in Central Europe on the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Austerlitz, when Napoleon defeated the combined forces of Austria and Russia. In the politically charged post-cold-war Europe they find that the battle is being refought around them.

Lola and her husband, an evangelical Christian, are sexually compatible but intellectually at odds, and as their honeymoon develops their domestic problems cause serious headaches for the military leaders in this darkly humorous and thought-provoking political and philosophical fantasy, interspersed with original songs.

Production Notes

Toured Oct 1995 - Apr 1996

Below are reviews of the play, not necessarily of our performance of it! But since we did premier it, we feel justified in putting them here. Anyway, there's one by Edward Bond there!

Reviews

Review by : The Guardian

"Dic Edwards' plays are never easy but lola brecht has some very funny moments, some sharp satire and plenty of evidence of a clever mind at work."

Review by : The Stage

"A black comedy which points as accusing and bloody finger at sexual frustrations as the root of all evil. As the civil war bubbles outside their hotel, it echoes the conflict inside (Brecht's) head and in his bitching impotent marriage to Lola. .to be congratulated.

Review by : The Western Mail

"lola brecht is a good play with much to say about modern human frustrationsThere is a delightful dream-scene where Napoleon makes love with Lola and helps her give birth: to an array of weaponry! Excellent.

Review by : The Cambrian News

"The drama is often eased by comic touches - a wounded Peter realises that he loves ex-nurse Lola "for her nursing skill and knowledge of bandages!" But the underlying threat of excessive nationalism keeps this drama simmering. Dic Edwards has written a thought-provoking script."

Review by : Edward Bond

"lola brecht.is about war but also about peace. The strange state of mesmeric sub-violence we live in. People find no meaning in their lives, objects don't have a function anymore. It's like being in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and trying to find the bottom with your feet. The political leaders are zombies or puppets or clowns or sinister. And we're stranded in a strange hotel by a railway line. The play gives the feel of contemporary life. History strangely confusing, the mysteries of the present are not even intriguing - Kafka would die of boredom. And people's own passions swimming around them like sharks attacking them. And everything as decorous as a shop window. I think the play gets all this.The characters are immediately recognisable and their presence has consequence, they're not arbitrary..It's a strange play: it's like seeing an island of earth floating in the sky. As if the foundations of existence were exposed and as if the earth were trying to hide its nakedness."

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