ABSOLUTELY! (perhaps).

London

ABSOLUTELY! (perhaps)
by Luigi Pirandello new version by Martin Sherman

Wyndhams Theatre
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed & Sat 2.30pm
Runs 1hr 50min One interval

TICKETS: 020 7369 1736
0870 160 2878 (credit cards, booking fee, 24 hours)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 21 May 2003

Elegant investigation into an old, perpetual questionTruth's been the philosophers' quarry since whenever; Pirandello good-humouredly tells us that, rather like beauty, it's in.the mind of the perceiver. Franco Zeffirelli's handsome, sharply-acted production gives the pursuit a vivid, comic-edged logic, suggesting the playwright didn't bother too much about his characters as people. Minor ones are almost as much on the sidelines as the audience members seated at the peripheries from where a couple of plants voice brief comments.

Zeffirelli also puts a central character on the edges. A Professor in the playlist generally signifies everybody needs to learn something. Oliver Ford Davies, whose decisive vocal phrasing and cocked-head stance put passion into thought processes, is strong casting for Laudisi; his point is that appearances mask differences.

In one of his few centre stage moments he demonstrates how he can be a different person to various people: in what way are they talking about him as the 'same' person? The main action discovering the motive of Darrell D'Silva's (expertly reasonable, even when having to act enraged) civil servant in keeping his mother-in-law at bay explores this notion.

Two accounts in which the wife could be one of two different women - is founded on love, both in Ponza and Joan Plowright's stately, grave dowager. Her passion is more restrained, but joins in an intense family trio.

Around their 'performances' other characters sit like mini-audience rows. Their search for identifiable truth is mocked to the final curtain laugh by Laudisi. The search for 'truth' only reveals simultaneous realities.

There are questions. Laudisi, patrolling the peripheries, decries documentary evidence but creates his own document by writing copious notes.

A beautifully intricate mosaic wall edges into mirror reflections. Where are we? Young Dina is a modern denim-clad teenager, but she talks with concern of the detailed protocol for neighbourly visits. When is this?

Laudisi, marked out in his comfy old cardigan from the invariably elegant others, speaks, in Martin Sherman's new version (generally fluent, but not entirely avoiding the self-consciousness in English version of Pirandello) of being 'on a roll'. What's his style? The impact of such details is not truth but generalisation.

Still, West End Pirandello's good news, and performance strength runs right through the cast list in this provocative revival.

Lamberto Laudisi: Oliver Ford Davies
Signora Frola: Joan Plowright
Signor Ponza: Darrell D'Silva
Signora Ponza: Hilary Tones
Councillor Agazzi: Barry Stanton
Signora Amalia: Liza Tarbuck
Dina: Sian Brooke
Signora Sirelli: Anna Cartaret
Signor Sirelli: Gawn Grainger
Mayor: Jeffry Wickham
Insepctor: Fred Ridgeway
Signora Cini: Brid Brennan
Signora Nenni: Lolly Susi
Salvatore: Timothy Bateson
Ladies and Gentlemen: Jud Charlton, Robin Harvey Edwards, Alice Selwyn, Jean Stanley

Director/Designer: Franco Zeffirelli
Lighting: Andrew Bridge
Sound: John Leonard forAura
Music/musical arrangements: Jeremy Sams

2003-05-23 12:03:53