"Wise Children" - the play by Emma Rice

This is a play adapted from the book Wise Children by Angela Carter. The title is based on the saying:  “It is a Wise Child that knows its own father, but wiser yet, the father who knows his own child.” (Act 1 Scene 5)

Nora and Dora are twins living in Brixton, London UK. Dora is telling the story on their 75th birthday which also happens to be the 100th birthday of their father and uncle, twins Peregrine and Melchior Hazard. N & D are carrying on the theatrical tradition of their grandparents Ranulph and Estelle and theatrical knight Sir Melchior. Twinship, theatre and illegitimacy are themes that recur in this convoluted story.

Other quotes I enjoyed:

• “Nora was always free with it and threw her heart away as if it were a used bus ticket. She had a passion to know about life and all its dirty corners.” (Act 1 Scene 7)
• “It’s every woman’s tragedy that, after a certain age, she looks like a female impersonator.” (Act 2 Scene 3)
• “Old father Thames lies between Brixton and glamour like a sword.” (Act 2 Scene 3)
• “Comedy is tragedy that happens to other people.” (Act 2 Scene 3)
• “He was not the love of my life but all the loves of my life at once.” (Act 2 Scene 3)

September 2019