Revu Apples in Winter
“Apples in Winter” Poster
Harrowing. Brilliantly so: Apples in Winter
Edie Campbell is tremendous as Miriam, a mother whose son is set for execution. His last request? His mother’s apple pie.
The set and lighting design of this piece really help it to excel. A gobo creates the illusion of prison bars across the stage, subtle but effective. The clinical lighting paired with the striped back industrial look of the functioning kitchenette already reveals exactly where we are to those paying close enough attention.
When Miriam comes on, she is warm and clearly skilled in baking. With ease she recites to us the key to making the perfect apple pie all the while while doing it live on stage. She tells us about her son and his life growing up, there are ups and downs but like with every child, when is there not?
There is a sense of something wrong in the air. A tension. It comes more clearly to ahead when Miriam moves to peel the apples, picking up a knife, only to find it attached to the table by a wire for safety - so no one can take it and wield it against another person.
There is a shift in the play. After a few more moments, Miriam is done assembling the pie and now it needs to bake. She places it in the oven and here, she can finally step free of the kitchenette and move around more and here the play grows darker and darker. Again, there is another extremely effective use of a gobo to evoke trees.
Again, Edie Campbell is tremendous. She holds the stage well and treats the subject matter of the piece with the utmost care, never overacting or succumbing to easy emotion, her greatest strength is indeed how much she holds back and restrains herself with her outburst near the end feeling all the more deafening because of it.
A well executed piece of theatre and one not for the faint of heart. One that made multiple audience members cry as the smell of baked apples filled the auditorium.
Tickets for the show can be found here: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/apples-in-winter
4/5 Stars
By Ethan H.M.M
