ANATOL. To 18 March.

London

ANATOL
by Arthur Schnitzler translated by Carl Mueller

Arcola Theatre To 18 March 2006
Mon-Sat 8pm
Runs 2hr 10min One interval

TICKETS: 020 7503 1646
www.arcolatheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 28 February

Sex in society proves hard work.
Seven scenes from the life of a late 19th century philanderer form Arthur Schnitzler’s Anatol. But, while Thomas Hescott’s production, more notable for energy than subtlety, shows some events bordering on the comic, or farcical, he makes it increasingly evident that Schnitzler’s territory is sex tragedy.

Through Anatol’s various affairs, his friend Max always close by to comment, the playwright diagnoses desire. What had previously been cloudily external in drama is revealed as part of the human organism’s inner workings. Fear of knowing a lover’s feelings and behaviour, possessive jealousy and raging fury, the power that love gives and denies in its various forms, are all here. So is the variety of women, whose toughness or vulnerability largely determines Anatol’s mood and actions.

Actors Sam Hodges and Andrew Fallaize present the several sides of Anatol and the appropriate responses of a sensible friend. But Hodges especially rattles at such a fast pace there’s little sense of Anatol’s words arising from interior emotions. All seems pre-determined, robbing situations of reality.

Nor, despite the simple but judicious use of costume and furniture, does the acting give much sense of Anatol’s 1892 Vienna. Except for Anna Francolini as the various women with whom Anatol has his liaisons. Innocent Cora never comes to know the agonies she’s caused under hypnosis. Circus-performer Bianca returns to town and greets Max affectionately but has clearly forgotten Anatol till the physical circumstances of their meeting are recalled (the décor was clearly more memorable than his face). Emily is agonised by his possessive demands.

But it’s the raging women of the later scenes that show the devastation of sexual desire. Anatol’s calm is ruined over a smart restaurant meal when his singer-mistress declares she’s leaving him, over greedily-devoured oysters and subsequent somnolence, for a lover in the chorus. And finally, Ilona, unaware the man she’s spent the night with is due to be married in the afternoon, flies into an apartment-shredding rage that leaves her lying on the floor amid feathers from a cushion, a final, apt sight of the agonies that can result from the complexities of desire.

Anatol: Sam Hodges
Max: Andrew Fallaize
Women: Anna Francolini
Franz: Jeremy Booth

Director: Thomas Hescott
Designer: Carrie Southall
Lighting: Richard Howell
Sound: Lee Stevens
Costume: Nell Knudsen
Assistant costume: Sarah Burton

2006-03-01 01:09:00