ARTEFACTS. To 10 May.

London/Tour.

ARTEFACTS
by Mike Bartlett.

Bush Theatre To 22 March then tour to 10 May 2008.
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat Sat 3pm.
Runs 1hr 20min No interval.

TICKETS: 020 7610 4224.
www.bushtheatre.co.uk (Bush performances)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 10 April.

Valuable multi-sided examination of values.
For the first time the Bush has abandoned its L-shaped audience seating to become a theatre-in-the-round. There again, it’s housing a piece by shapeshifter-general of modern British playwriting, Mike Bartlett, whose My Child transformed the Royal Court’s larger space into a claustrophobic tube compartment.

There’s plenty of altering perspectives in the eighty minutes between teenage Kelly sitting on the auditorium steps displaying her attitude and her finally sitting there as a graduate doing much the same at a slightly lessened pace. Throughout, she’s a vocal perpetuum mobile, switching with unreflective rapidity between direct chat to us and momentary scenes with mother Susan and Ibrahim, the father she’s never previously seen.

Kelly moves from ‘Me’ teenager to someone whose perspective includes others. Yet, like the views of her father, with whom she clashes, every opinion and certainty is challenged. And throughout, binding events in Britain and Iraq is an artefact: the ancient Sumerian vase from the dawn of civilisation, with no value for Kelly, but bound up with the action.

It’s contrasted by the consumer goods Kelly casts aside when she leaves home. Objects with sentimental value for her mother, reminders of her daughter’s childhood, mean nothing to Kelly herself. Bartlett never overplays his hand; human values and costs are his focus, but they’re reflected beautifully by objects, just as trashy material affluence in England contrasts the sparseness of existence in Iraq.

James Grieve’s production is a well-balanced treasury of detail, with a quintet of outstanding performances. Peter Polycarpou shows passion in moments of certainty and hesitation as Ibrahim holds to his values while charting his way through the complexities of modern Iraq. Mouna Albakry matches a wife’s loyalty with a mother’s desperation, and Amy Hamdoon eventually emerges from near silence to become the final, surprising challenger to Kelly’s assumptions.

Karen Ascoe, in what could be the least developed role, evokes a comparatively relaxed English world. These, with Lizzy Watts’ alert, outstandingly nuanced Kelly, make for a piece well worth beating a way to the Bush to see, and essential viewing in the places fortunate enough to be on the tour-list..

Kelly: Lizzy Watts.
Susan: Karen Ascoe.
Ibrahim: Peter Polycarpou.
Faiza: Mouna Albakry.
Raya: Amy Hamdoon.

Director: James Grieve.
Designer: Lucy Osborne.
Lighting: Hartley T A Kemp.
Music: Arthur Darvill.
Dialect coach: Michaela Kennan.
Assistant director: Tara Wilkinson.

2008-03-12 10:21:51