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.
'F**k the milk of human kindness and welcome to the abattoir.
Aloof in sunglasses, beer and cigarette in hand, Oliver Julian's barn debut begins with him pacing around one of the Drama Barn's more enterprising sets this year. We wonder what will occur. But noone expects what follows: from the most underused of all barn entrances, the ceiling, descends a box, followed by Captain Tock (Ryan Lane). The unexplained, unexpected entrance is the first of various fairy-tale motifs, followed by the revelation of characters with fantastical names who each have their own sense of displacement within the reality presented by the play. Philip Ridley has also written for children, but this play about Cougar, a booze-addled man-child who never wants to grow up provides us with a story disturbing in its adherence to - yet ultimate rejection of - the idealisation of youth.
Julian and Lane (also in his first major Barn play) are unequivocally the best thing about this production. Lane is enjoyable as the bird-obsessed Captain Tock, anxious and craving affection, having endured life with clipped wings. Julian is brutal in his belief that 'life's too short to have feelings for people', flicking cigarette ash onto Tock with all the airs of a bully childishly unappreciative of any sincere emotion. Yet despite Cougar's harshness towards his devoted companion, theirs is ultimately a symbiotic relationship, and one that is successfully conveyed; both are fastidious in their foibles, providing some perfectly pitched comic relief.
However, the production is dogged by pacing issues. While this is to some degree a problem with the plot, there are frequently too many pauses, infusing the narrative with a faux-Beckett quality at odds with the overall tone of the script. Poor decisions such as this detract from the immediacy and tension that this production should contain, and this is perhaps the first time I've seen an opening night of a Drama Barn play seem over, not under-rehearsed. As a result, a play that should have had cut-throat impact is somewhat blunted by its own familiarity and - aside from the opening - direction that lacked surprise.
George Viner as the pathologically apologetic character of Foxtrot Darling succeeds in conveying the naïvety of his character, but it is trickier to decide if his portrayal of the schoolboy as emotionally-stunted is part of the script's intention or reflects a lack of conviction in performance. More successful is Emily Farrow: she reveals Sherbet Gravel to be as meticulous about her future as Cougar is about his present. While convincing overall, at times she is more mockney than cockney, and she should have been given some light padding to indicate her early pregnancy - a rather bizarre oversight given the acquisition of far less readily-available props such as candelabra and vintage porn.
Superb lighting creates some genuinely effective moments, however this production is largely saved by the many bursts of laughter from an audience moved by the sheer ridiculousness of the dramatic situation. Drama Barn veteran James Quelch must also be commended for his portrayal of Cheetah Bee, who injects the much-needed shot of black humour that such a play relies upon. However ultimately this was not enough to make the production entirely successful. Tellingly, while much work was put into an ambitious set complete with stuffed birds, their arrangement meant that most of the creatures remained unseen by the seated audience. Sadly, this detail reveals that this production falls down not because of complacency but because too much of its efforts are exerted in the wrong direction.
The set was definitely a problem for some of the audience but in terms of the direction of the production and your problem with the 'faux-Beckett' pauses I think you've missed the tone of the script completely. The gaps in dialogue help build up a tension that adds to the relationship of Tock and Cougar not detracts from it. This was a superb production with more than 'some effective moments', its ambition being only matched by the skill with which the actors portrayed such difficult parts. This play and Wit last week certainly remind me how the Drama Barn can be used to stage plays that are professional and memorable, for all the right reasons.
Personally, I felt like it was a GOOD PRODUCTION... of a bad play. The set and direction were ambitious, the actors impressive and the barn absolutely packed (two or three people had to be turned away- which is commendable for a production going up against Central Hall Musical Society's much-anticipated Rent).
The bottom line is, I simply didn't enjoy it very much. I think I just didn't "get" the play-- and not in a good way.
I understood the play but again I didn't enjoy it very much. I think however that Emily Farrow did add pace and a contrast to the production. Otherwise, it would have felt rather monotonous and unfortunately some audience members drifted off to other aspects of the barn that may have seemed rather interesting. The set was adventurous but I didn't think it worked in having the audience in thrust. By doing this with a play that had the action mostly faced towards flats by the tech box where no audience members were seated, it felt like watching most of the play side-on. Combine this with the monotony I thought of earlier, sometimes instead of looking at the actors, I was looking at the audience in front of me. It was a great attempt at a difficult play but unfortunately for me it didn't quite hit the mark.
You must log in to submit a comment.
Report