The Bicycle and the Butcher's Daughter
By Helen Moulder and Sue Rider
Directed by Sue Rider
The Dark Room (and touring New Zealand)
Wednesday, May 5
I'm casting a play in my head on the drive home from The Bicycle and the Butcher's Daughter and I'm making sure there is at least one part for Helen Moulder.
I've just seen her play five very different roles and now it's hard to imagine a play without her in it. I search for a word bigger than phenomenal to describe her performance tonight and find myself wanting. I find myself wanting more.
This fourth collaboration with writer / director Sue Rider is the first time I have seen Moulder on stage. I've interviewed her, feel I know her well from many conversations, but nothing actually prepared me for the performance I witness in this 75-minute, one-woman show.
Not only does Moulder take on five characters, she dims the lights and plays the music – specially recorded renditions of Beethoven's Kreutzer and Spring Sonatas by Richard Mapp and Juliet Ayre.