A BUYER'S MARKET. To 4 May.
London.
A BUYER'S MARKET
by Tony Bicat.
Bush Theatre To 4 May 2002.
Mon-Sat 8pm.
Runs 2hr 15min One interval.
TICKETS 020 7610 4224.
Review Timothy Ramsden 10 April.
A stunningly-acted political thriller in an immaculate production.
Tony Bicat's come up with an entertaining, and in the end downright exciting play. Rosie, a bright-eyed dim-head from Dorking, is trying to break through the glass ceiling of the estate agency where she works by going solo on a London penthouse sale.
It's 1995, so the property, with symbolic view of Parliament, is a snip at one quid under a million. Here to buy is the tough-looking P.G. Wodehouse, soon accompanied by his young relative Ernest Hemingway.
Of course, with names like that, there's a great contrast between them; Hemingway longing to return and freedom-fight in his conflict-ridden post-Soviet homeland, Wodehouse mentally stateless and searching out the main chance. He'll spin any story to make his ruthless way – which has given him the purchase price, and more, in a suitcase stuffed with £20 notes.
Matthew Marsh's terrifying, unpredictable Wodehouse is the play's villain, and its motor. He ploughs his rough way through Rosie's professional manner and the self-seeking vanity of the vendor Vincent, a popular author who gambles away his royalties. Only Hemingway's principled toughness can stand against him, and then with wary desperation.
An occasional over-written line apart – Rosie's 'Channel hop back into the nightmare' as a comment on how TV leaves no paradise untouched by news of the world's troubles seems to comes from a less persuasive play – the only drawback lies in the play's setting, safely back in the days of the Major government (Vincent's ambitious politician wife is a major, unseen plot influence). Set a hundred years ago, it would provide an analogue for these times. Set seven years ago, it seems escapist.
And the ending, while far from happy, is plot-twisted into being less horrific than it might have been. Fine for fiction, but there's a nasty feeling life's resolutions are less satisfying.
None of which takes from the play's gathering excitement in Gemma Bodinetz's beautifully controlled production. All four actors are perfect, but a particular mention for Jalaal Hartley's Hemingway, intense both in his mediation between post-Soviet gangsterism and initially assured English materialism, and his seething frustration on behalf of his native land.
Rosie: Emma Cunniffe.
Wodehouse: Matthew Marsh.
Hemingway: Jalaal Hartley.
Axel Vincent: Anthony Calf.
Director: Gemma Bodinetz.
Designer: Bruce Macadie.
Lighting: Adam Silverman.
Sound: John Leonard/Scott George for Aura.
2002-04-11 09:56:10