ANDORRA by Max Frisch. Young Vic to 10 November

London

ANDORRA
by Max Frisch

Young Vic Theatre To 10 November 2001

Runs 2hr 55min One interval

TICKETS 020 7928 6363
Review Timothy Ramsden 23 October

Period piece to which neither time nor its latest production have been kind.The first years of the Sixties were the continuation of the 1950s by another name. But in 1964 the sexual revolution, the Beatles and Britain's National Theatre were all newly under way. How fresh Frisch must then have seemed in the National's repertory, with his Swiss parable of guilt and self-exculpation, its links to Theatre of the Absurd making sophisticated playgoing nerves rooted in realism tingle with excitement.

Switzerland was still squeaky-clean, unpolluted by reports of ex-Jewish Nazi-appropriated loot stashed in its numbered bank accounts. So this portrait of a land proclaiming its neutrality and love of liberty while secretly stereotyping Jews and being easily sucked into the anti-semitic practices of its invading Black neighbour (the reference is to Fascist uniforms not ethnicity) was, no doubt, startlingly bold.

Timely, then, but is it a classic? Frisch is up against stiffer competition now drama has poked its political nose into every cranny of the skulduggery underlying outward respectability.
Yet an Andorra just a few years back from Newcastle-upon-Tyne's Northern Stage company still had quite a kick.

At the Young Vic, Francis O' Connor's striking design sums up Andorran society in the two tiers of beach-hut like homes where the inhabitants dwell. It suits the play; in his other drama about self-satisfied decency overcome by force, The Fire Raisers, Frisch created a single, typical family; here, he shows a society in miniature. And the design helpfully pushes the action forward to the forum of a public square on the Vic's thrust-form stage.

But this closeness encourages a low-key realism in Thompson's production which flattens out interest. Even the stronger performances, like those of McMahon, Newman and Shepherd, are limited. And while highlighting Andorran smugness by casting against it with an ethnically diverse and inclusive acting company is a sound concept, the impact in the event is to dissipate rather than concentrate; the effect is a jumble of disparate acting.

Father Benedict, the Priest David Annen
The Innkeeper Stephen Casey
Somebody Mathew Fraser
An Idiot Goran Kostic
Barblin Aoife McMahon
Andri Alec Newman
The Sebora/ The Jew Detector Etela Pardo
The Mother Helene Patarot
Ferrer, the Doctor Morris Perry
Can, the Teacher Jack Shepherd
Fedri, the Journeyman Anthony Taylor
Prader, the Carpenter Badi Uzzaman
Peider, the Soldier Jem Wall

Director Gregory Thompson
Design Francis O' Connor
Lighting Paule Constable
Sound Crispian Covell

2001-10-31 11:34:07