BALLROOM. To 22 August.

Oxford/London

BALLROOM
by John Retallack

Oxford Playhouse To 14 August
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 2.30pm
then Riverside Studios Hammersmith 17-22 August 2004
Runs 2hr 5min One interval

TICKETS: 01865 305305
www.oxfordplayhouse.com (Oxford)
020 8237 1111 (Riverside)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 12 August

Elegiac slow-time hymn to life going on.Talk about unexpected: here's John Retallack, the man with a mission to toughen up young people's theatre in Britain, producing a quiet hymn to the slow waltz. But, there's tango and rumba alongside and a light bite, at least, in the quartet of senior citizens inhabiting the open space of Juliet Shillingford's ballroom tea-dance set.

All are bereaved members of the bus-pass brigade. Their life's interiorised hence the monologues and conversations with voiceover' departed, more heartfelt than their polite, nervous or defensive dance-hall introductions. No-one knows anybody in this big space with its unseen, toe-curling toned DJ. Music seems thrown at them, at first sinking them further into memories, then propelling them onwards with their lives.

Whether, like the supernatural characters of Dr Faustus or Macbeth, the voices from the dead are taken as real' or symbols of inward debate, they become a way of revealing character. The trouble is, there's not that much to reveal. One woman's husband only wanted to marry a dance-partner with whom to win ballroom competitions, his sexual impulses taking him elsewhere; one man sees no purpose in life after his wife's death. Both fair material, but things that need only momentary mention before the action moves on are subjected to multiple repeats.

There are stand-out moments the widow surprised how easily she assimilated her husband's death, and a brief poignant story of that most undramatic type: the person who married young and lived happily ever after. But most of the emotional high points are swept up in the dance, where the four main characters are joined or replaced by non-speaking dancers (all technically superb) representing their dear(ish) departed or their own younger selves.

Maybe, though, this contrast makes the point: people remain inarticulate or reticent about feelings when someone's in front of them. It's a human tragedy that emotions come too late, and a human blessing they can find expression in movement. As they whirl and twirl to different styles of undistinguished music, or as a mock-sentimental Satie waltz tinkles and chimes around them, these sympathetic performances finally make visible the full life of ordinary people.

Sylvia: Linda Broughton
Audrey: Anita Wright
Roy: Gilbert Wynne
Victor: Graham Bill
Young Sylvia/Yvette: Nicola Weeks
Young Audrey/Constance: Joanna Morton
Young Roy/Pierre: Matthew Day
Young Victor/Graham: Ashley Green
Voice of Constance: Cherry Morris
Voice of Pierre: Maxwell Hutcheon
Voice of Raymond Clarke: Karl James
Voice of Children: Year 4, Soho Parish School

Directors: John Retallack, Jack Murphy
Designer: Juliet Shillingford
Lighting: Mark Dymock
Sound: Tom Lishman
Choreographer: Jack Murphy
Assistant choreographer: Alice Brickwood

2004-08-13 16:58:44