The Globe Theatre production of Sylvia Plath: A Dramatic Portrait, conceived and adapted from her writings by English theatre director Barry Kyle, presents the American poet’s life as “a bad dream”; her suicide as “a perversion of the woman she was”. The story is delivered by a cast of five, each provoking a different perspective, creating a gust of emotions that tumbles the audience into her world.

Across the dark blanket of Sylvia’s life story, her poetry and prose is littered like gems, each creating a faceted window into her thoughts and emotions throughout her life. Events like her father’s death and the birth of her two children are cast against the stark shadows of her work as a writer and poet.

Two elder narrators – Yvonne Jessop and Perry Spicer (also the director) – scaffold the experience, signposting the timeline of her life. One recounts the dates and events with precision; the other brushes across the relationships being formed and reformed. Both take the role of storytellers, watching from the corners of the stage. Their oversight of her is almost parental and appears to explore perspectives in a gendered binary.

A triumvirate of Sylvias (Beth Lockhead, Lauren Meckel and Alison Cowan) skilfully convey the honeycomb planes of her personality, expressing warm and playful honour, the love and passion of a mother and wife, and the dark and humid anger and despair that Sylvia often grappled.

With production in keeping with the cosy ambience of the Globe Theatre, Sylvia Plath: A Dramatic Portrait is a splendid Australasian debut and ensures an exemplary evening of entertainment.

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