Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
'We have worked hard to uncover the common truths, the lies, the dreams, the humour and humanity of people caught in desperate situations’ - a perfect précis from director Paul Osborne of the central themes of On the Shore of the Wide World.
Set in Stockport and spanning a period of nine months, the play charts the relationships of the Holmes family. As they battle through change and strife, the Holmes’ unearth truths about each other which can either be heartening or devastating. On the Shore of the Wide World takes its characters, and its audience, on a journey of self -discovery.
Charlie and Ellen are the grandparents of the family. Their son Peter is married to Alice. Together they have two children, Christopher and Alex. We firstly follow the exciting story of Alex and his girlfriend Sarah as they fall in love. They want to move away and pursue a life in the big city where they can make their fortune- that is, if they can get away from Chris, who is besotted with his brother's girlfriend. However as the play develops, we learn that Chris was tragically killed in a road accident. The play then starts to divulge the family’s secrets and to reveal the downward spirals and darker natures of the characters.
The family becomes ruptured. Alex and Alice show little signs of grief for Chris’ death, which concerns Peter. Alice also becomes increasingly disenchanted with her marriage and pursues another man. Peter is struggling to come to terms with the loss of his son and has recurrent nightmares which recall the accident. Meanwhile, Charlie is an alcoholic with a violent streak, as Chris once saw him hit his wife Ellen. Furthermore, like Alice, Charlie has not been entirely faithful during his marriage. Will the Holmes’ recover from Chris’ death? Or are they all sentenced to lives of misery and failure?
An effective black box set design brought the characters’ stories to the fore, forcing the audience to focus on them and not their locations. We became engrossed in acting that was incredibly naturalistic; big back-row-hitting projection and exaggerated facial expressions were not required. This contributed to the realistic portrayal of the family, so crucial to the play. The acting was of a high standard. Richard Easterbrook gave a captivating performance as Charlie, playing the duality of a loving grandfather and a disturbing alcoholic to near perfection. Though having only a small role as a pregnant woman who feels an affinity with Peter, Kate Newall gave a commanding performance which left us wondering whether Peter would also consider an affair.
Although being a lengthy 2 hours and 45 minutes, the play did manage to hold my attention. The characters drew us in, making us long to know what happens to them. However, despite the hook of the story and quality of the performances, there were some aspects of the play that let the production down. A less distracting and clamorous way of changing scenes would have been more appropriate. Moreover, many of the scenes were staged in similar way, posing the risk of making the play bland. Although the performances did help to distract us from this fact, I did feel that it would have been effective to have more variable blocking throughout to underscore the concept of change which the play explores. Having said this, the play still took us on a thoroughly engaging, emotional, at times amusing journey- certainly one that is well worth seeing.
On the Shore of the Wide World will be at the York Theatre Royal from Tuesday 17 - Saturday 21 March. Tickets are available from the Box Office on 01904 623568 or from the York Theatre Royal website
You must log in to submit a comment.
