“The Impersonators combines the abstract qualities of dance with the dramatic and narrative possibilities of a theatrical play. The production draws upon images from early music hall, and is constructed as a series of acts and divertissement performed around a central plot. Like the tradition of music hall, a wide variety of entertainers are presented, including male and female impersonators, serio comics, and the more ‘high brow’ song and dance artistes. The piece is set within a Victorian period described in the overall design, the music and text, and a series of historical slide projections. Within this backdrop the performers are seen on and off stage, to reveal both the glamour and drudgery of their profession as working class entertainers. In particular the roles of women are looked at who, in this context, were often the victims of moralising attitudes of the day, which condemned women entertainers as ‘loose, free women’. The company includes performers with a wide range of acting, dance, and performance skills. Dialogue and comic banter is juxtaposed with dance forms, protest and humour…creating an overall environment in which socially relevant issues can be looked at from a theatrical and creative perspective.”
Jacky Lansley – programme notes
Written, directed and choreographed by Jacky Lansley; music composed and directed by Sylvia Hallett; design by Pamela Marre; performed by Betsy Gregory, Vincent Meehan, Stephanie Nunn.
Performances at The Drill Hall, London, 1982-83.
REVIEWS
“The Impersonators successfully captures the ambience of Music Hall, its crazy gimmicks, sentimentality and vitality….The play’s message is best delivered through an eclectic mixture of melodrama, songs and dances. In sequences from Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, a play within a play, the terrible split between rational and irrational mirrors the tension between male and female selves….The Impersonators offers playful androgyny as an alternative to the divided self.”
Wendy Brandmark – Spare Rib, issue 128, March 1983
‘The inspiration for The Impersonators comes from those rediscovered artists of 1900 [Hetty King, Ella Shields, Vesta Tilley]. The setting is backstage of a Music Hall, where the popular drama ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ is being being rehearsed. By juxtaposing scenes backstage of the hard worked impersonators with scenes from the play…Jacky wants to draw out the complexities of sex and class…With a mixture of dance and dialogue, Jacky’s cast of three, Betsy Gregory, Vincent Mehan, and Stephanie Nunn, will look at a subject which can fascinate, repel, and potentially liberate us from the repressions of dress codes and their sexual stereotyping”.
Barney Bardsley – Spare Rib – preview article January 1983