Francesca Davies-Cáceres is moved by Carrie Gaunt’s one-woman exploration of gender and genesis. 

As the Durham Drama Festival programme kicks off this dreary February, we are reminded of brilliance through Carrie Gaunt’s Eve. Her production showcases the best of student theatre, and the best of drama at Durham University.

 

If a one-woman play didn’t already seem daunting, themes of sex, violence, and abuse created a tense environment. Daunting to all, apart from to Mally Capstick, who fearlessly portrayed the hurt, broken persona of Eve. We’re all familiar with the traditional account of Genesis: the curiosity and foolishness of Eve that caused hers and Adam’s descent from the Garden of Eden, Paradise. Paradise is far from what is recalled in Eve’s account. The torturing, harrowing, and physically draining experience asks us all to look at the life lived by the so-called ‘first woman’. The way her problems and struggles are presented, navigating herself through a world that sees her as the second sex, always inferior to the man in her life, is a scary reality for so many women nowadays.

 

The haunting melody of the hymn ‘Abide with Me’, alerted our attention, as all eyes became poised on Capstick’s tearful rendition. Capstick’s striking take on Eve looked at the disbelief and disappointment in the promise of ‘Paradise’ made by God. Enraged by her treatment, she took us on an emotive ride of self-realisation and self loathing that implored us all to question what we know, and what we deem as acceptable. The tale is subverted and questions the treatment of women in society, and explores if and how women continue to suffer in this immeasurable manner.

 

‘Just because I give, doesn’t mean you have to take’ – words that resonated in all who watched, I can assure you. Gaunt’s script looks at the link between heartbreak, disappointment, and most importantly, disillusion. Through Katie Sawyer’s direction, Capstick, in this line, not only reminded us of Eve’s failed relationship with Adam, but revived in us as an audience all the hurt and pain experienced from our own past failed relationships: we became part of Eve’s journey of self-realisation. Like so many of us, Eve looked to her partner Adam for happiness and reassurance, for him to simply destroy her and let her down. This beautifully well written feminist piece silences Adam and gives the voice to a broken girl, allowing for pure emotion to flood the stage.

 

The religious connotations of the play made its location, the Hatfield Chapel, extremely befitting, with the simple white lighting helping to portray Eve as a lost, tormented, yet angelic soul. Lighting, coupled with the torn, bloody, white silk undergarment Capstick wore, highlighted the harsh reality of Eve’s ‘Paradise’. Eve’s colourful vocabulary was both shocking and out of place, yet in its own way, perfect. All eyes were on Eve; no gimmicks or props were needed to draw our attention to the stage. At scarce times, it felt the slight direction of movement was repetitive, and although various levels were used, I feel she could have perhaps used the different areas in the chapel more.

 

Nevertheless, Gaunt, Sawyer and Capstick should be overwhelmed with pride; what I took away from Eve is more than any piece of writing should ever promise. It made me think, it made me re-evaluate, and it made me question the sly reality we live in. With slight glimpses of laughter through the painful moments, it showed the brevity of a woman consumed by love, and destroyed by hurt.