1. New Group Off-Broadway 2003
Theater at St. Clement's Church
New York, New York
April 6, 2003 - May 11, 2003
Director: Scott Elliot
Scenery: Derek McLane
Costumes: Mattie Ullrich
Lighting: Jason Lyons
Sound: Ken Travis
The play [...] was produced by the New Group and the Women's Project, and it has been directed as delicately as possible by Scott Elliott on a set by Derek McLane that depicts the hills of Lockerbie as a wooden, three-dimensional contour map. The mist is kept to a minimum. But little can be done to leaven Ms. Brevoort's script...
Bruce Weber, The New York Times
April 10, 2003Scott Elliott, who took over as director from the previously announced Wilson Milam, steers the actors smoothly up and down the Greek drama inspired hills. Director, actors and the playwright's language manage to make palatable the bathos of Bill's inevitable bursting into tears and Madeline's joining the women in washing the clothes in the stream at the edge of the stage (another bravo touch by set designer Derek McLane). Thus, even knowing we've been manipulated, we end up dabbing at our own damp eyes and being genuinely touched.
Elyse Sommer, Curtain Up
2003
http://www.curtainup.com/womenoflockerbie.html
2. Orange Tree Theatre
Orange Tree Theatre
Richmond, Surrey, London
August 31, 2005 - October 1, 2005
Director: Auriol Smith
Designed by: Sam Dowson
Lighting: Oliver Fenwick
Vital argument is avoided and Brevoort's pseudo-poetic language - "she's like a tree that's been struck by lightning" - too often grates. The staging, with its pool of water and tables placed atop each other to suggest hills, lacks imagination. Yet Auriol Smith's production is garlanded with overwhelming scenes of pathos, thanks to superlative actors: Lisa Eichorn's crazed mother obsessively mourning her dead son, Colette O'Neill's bereft Lockerbie woman cursing the Americans in shuddering spasms of grief [...] , all imbue the Women of Lockerbie with heartfelt poignancy.
Nicholas de Jongh, The Evening Standard
September 5, 2005
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/theatre/review-20266500-stars-rise-in-the-mourning.do
The acting throughout is superb and never mawkish, although special mention needs to be made for Colette O'Neil who, as Olive Allison, leads the women of Lockerbie in their fight against the man from the State Department. Portraying her as a solid Scottish woman in sensible shoes and tweeds makes her revelation half way through the play all the more shocking and heartbreaking. Sam Dowson's set design is particularly clever, with a series of stairs linking the stage with the gallery, representing the hills over which the grieving Madeline roams.
Lisa Hunt, musicOMH
http://www.musicomh.com/theatre/women-of-lockerbie_0905.htm
3. New Jersey Repertory Company
New Jersey Repertory Theater
Long Branch, New Jersey
March 25, 2006 - April 30, 2006
Director: Jason King Jones
Scenery: Jo Winiarski
Costumes: Patricia E. Doherty
Lighting: Jill Nagle
Sound: Merek Royce Press
As the lead woman of Lockerbie, Corinne Edgerly nearly chews the green Scottish hills to mulch, overplaying every expression, every word and practically every scene. She has taken on a grand Greek acting style here, but the theater is too intimate and the play too literal for the bluster. One of the most lovely performances among the cast of seven is delivered by the contemplative, red-haired Alice Connorton, billed simply as Woman 1 who found body parts in her garden that strange December morning.
Kerri Allen, The New York Times
April 2, 2006
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D00E6DF1230F931A35757C0A9609C8B63&scp=2&sq=women%20of%20lockerbie&st=cse
David Volin and Michele Tauber, as the boorish bureaucrat from the State Department and his cleaning lady, appear at first as something akin to comic relief. Volin's trademark edgy, urban sort of characterization seems particularly out of place in this quasi-mystical tableau, although perhaps that's the point. It's a definite credit to this cast and director that they're able to find a real emotional resonance at the heart of an often surreal script. The very genuine issues of loss and love and closure touched upon herein mean that every teardrop will be earned in full.
Tom Chesek, Asbury Park Press
March 29, 2006
http://www.njrep.org/inthenews2006.htm#lockerbie
4. The Actor's Gang
Culver City, California
Feb. 24, 2007 - April 28, 2007
Director: Brent Hinkley
Scenery: Sibyl Wickersheimer
Costumes: Ann Closs-Farley
Lighting: Bosco Flanagan
Sound: John Zalewski
Director Brent Hinkley does a superb job staging the show, but his real triumph is in the constant emotional reality created by his cast. Sibyl Wickersheimer's set consists largely of a black hillside that slopes upward toward the back wall of the theater, an impressive construction that evokes the sense of hills and a blank space for the emotions of this play to take center stage. John Zalewski's sound design subtly (and sometimes bluntly) bolsters the drama, and dialect coach Adele Cabot makes sure the Scottish accents are realistic and not broadly twee mimicry.
Terry Morgan, Variety
Feb. 26, 2007
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117932920.html?categoryid=33&cs=1
Though the entire cast serves Hinkley well, the center of the production is Kate A. Mulligan, who plays Adam’s mother Madeline. Her wails and contortions are of Greek proportion, a Munch scream come to life. Mulligan makes a brave choice in pulling out the stops for this characterization and it will unnerve some. However, she somehow shapes the hysteria and keeps a real person in sight.
Cristofer Gross, Blogcritics.org
April 13, 2007
http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/theater-review-the-women-of-lockerbie/page-2/#ixzz0uzhofQ8t
5. Progress Theatre
Reading, Berkshire, England
May 19 -24, 2008
Director: Christine Moran
Scenery: Aidan Moran
Lighting: Spencer Rodd, Trevor Dale
Sound: Geoff Dallimore
6. LynchPin Productions Theatre Company
The Electric Theatre
June 29, 2010
Guildford, United Kingdom
Director: Jack Lynch
NO DESIGNERS
Who would have thought that a group of actors, dressed in black, sitting in a semi-circle on a bare stage could make an afternoon play reading so dramatic, so riveting and almost unbearably moving? [...] Two factors contributed to this extraordinary achievement. The first was the sheer quality of the writing. [...] The second factor that made this production so powerful was the high quality of the acting. Director Jack Lynch also played the part of Maddy’s long-suffering husband Bill, who has so far been unable to express his own grief. Jack had assembled a strong cast who worked together as a team without any weak link.
Hugh Williams
Hugh Williams
PRODUCING THE PLAY
In producing The Women of Lockerbie, there are many problems that present themselves in the script itself. These problems challenge every production no matter whom, when, or where it is. One of these issues is the stream that is supposed to flow through the stage. The women are supposed to wash the clothes of the victims at the end of the play, and Madeline at one point plays around jumping back and forth of the stream. Whoever is producing the play has to figure out a logistical way to have a stream on stage, whether realistic or not. Another problem people have to face is stylistic aspects of the show. If you are producing the play, you have to completely understand the Greek style, and they also have to mold that ancient style into a modern text that everyone in the audience can relate to. The structure and texture of the piece screams Greek, so in producing this show you have to comprehend Greek style of theatre.
If we were producing this play at the UTC at Sam Houston State University, there are multiple problems that we specifically would have to face. One of these is issues that will have to be addressed is the dialect work. The Scottish accent is naturally very thick and noticeable. The problem with it is, is it’s so thick and noticeable that most audiences (especially at a University level) are not going to understand a word that is coming out of the actor’s mouths. Another issue we would have to face is the idea of age in our department. This show works because these people have gone through so much in their lives that their age helps them know how to push through and live. It is hard for someone to completely understand the life experience that age gets you. So college aged people are not going to be able to give the fully developed performance that a middle-aged or older actor/actress would give.
There are multiple ways to solve the problems that are presented above. The stream should be solved in accordance with the direction that the director wants to take his production. Some productions have literally had a stream running through the set that they built. Other productions that have gone a more artistic and abstract route, have had something like a piece of fabric that the women pulled down from the wall. They then draped the fabric on the floor and then proceeded to wash the clothes in that symbolizing the stream. In addressing the Greek style of the piece, collectively there is only one correct response the problem. You embrace the Greek structure and choral styling and mold that with some form of realism. This will create a show that may not look and feel real, but the emotions and passion is raw and realistic. When discussing the dialect issue, many productions just don’t have the accents because they don’t deem it necessary. Others believe that the accent creates an added difference between the Americans and the Scottish. I believe that it should be a light accent that is not thick; this still creates the added tension but lets the audience understand what’s being said. Also, at the academic level, age is always an issue; however, it creates a learning experience for the young actors.
The critics have overall responded in a positive manner towards the show. There is a mutual agreement that the words at points become very cheesy and overdone. However, most agree with the amount of emotion and power that the piece carries despite the somewhat predictable and melodramatic writing. Most critics have focused on these two aspects more than anything when reviewing productions of this script. Sometimes they mention the set, and what they did with the stream, but it is mostly centered around the writing and the performances.
If we were producing this play at the UTC at Sam Houston State University, there are multiple problems that we specifically would have to face. One of these is issues that will have to be addressed is the dialect work. The Scottish accent is naturally very thick and noticeable. The problem with it is, is it’s so thick and noticeable that most audiences (especially at a University level) are not going to understand a word that is coming out of the actor’s mouths. Another issue we would have to face is the idea of age in our department. This show works because these people have gone through so much in their lives that their age helps them know how to push through and live. It is hard for someone to completely understand the life experience that age gets you. So college aged people are not going to be able to give the fully developed performance that a middle-aged or older actor/actress would give.
There are multiple ways to solve the problems that are presented above. The stream should be solved in accordance with the direction that the director wants to take his production. Some productions have literally had a stream running through the set that they built. Other productions that have gone a more artistic and abstract route, have had something like a piece of fabric that the women pulled down from the wall. They then draped the fabric on the floor and then proceeded to wash the clothes in that symbolizing the stream. In addressing the Greek style of the piece, collectively there is only one correct response the problem. You embrace the Greek structure and choral styling and mold that with some form of realism. This will create a show that may not look and feel real, but the emotions and passion is raw and realistic. When discussing the dialect issue, many productions just don’t have the accents because they don’t deem it necessary. Others believe that the accent creates an added difference between the Americans and the Scottish. I believe that it should be a light accent that is not thick; this still creates the added tension but lets the audience understand what’s being said. Also, at the academic level, age is always an issue; however, it creates a learning experience for the young actors.
The critics have overall responded in a positive manner towards the show. There is a mutual agreement that the words at points become very cheesy and overdone. However, most agree with the amount of emotion and power that the piece carries despite the somewhat predictable and melodramatic writing. Most critics have focused on these two aspects more than anything when reviewing productions of this script. Sometimes they mention the set, and what they did with the stream, but it is mostly centered around the writing and the performances.
