Barbarians: Maxim Gorky: Salisbury Playhouse to 24th May 2003
Barbarians
by Maxim Gorky, translated by Jeremy Brooks, Kitty Hunter-Blair and Michael Weller
Salisbury Playhouse, 9th May 2003 to 24th May 2003
Mons-Sats 7.30 pm;
15th, 22nd, 24th May at 2.30 pm; Audio description both perfs 22nd May.
Runs 2 hours 50 minutes: One Interval
Tickets 01722 320333: http://www.salisburyplayhouse.com
Review Mark Courtice: 10th May 2003
Big cast story of small town folk.
With 21 actors this is advertised as the largest cast ever at the Playhouse. All concerned must take credit for brave, ambitious programming because Barbarians is a big, juicy, satisfying night in the theatre. It is fun to see so many characters telling this 1906 story of the possibilities of escape from the old world as it collides with the new.
Two railway engineers are harbingers of a new age; however they bring out old pestilences like lust, betrayal, fraud and heartbreak among three generations of locals at a small Russian town - including Nadiezhda who has so far remained unaffected by all those who have fallen for her (sometimes, as in the case of the statistician who shot himself - with fatal results). Will cynically charming Sergei or unyielding, cold Yegor succumb?
There are lots of splendid characters here, and the company set about them with a will. Simon Wilson and Jay Villiers excel as Yegor and Sergei. In the younger generation Hannah Scott’s Katya and Nicholas Boulton’s student Stepan have energy and attractiveness aplenty. The older generation includes a sinisterly creepy Pavlin from Terry Taplin; while, from the middle, Mark Jax suddenly moves us as the hopelessly lovelorn doctor Makarov.
Director Joanna Read marshals her forces with skill, if not quite avoiding the long succession of exits and entrances that so many characters can mean. She copes with the play’s inconsistent tone, as it veers from the political to personal, is good humoured without being good natured (there is nobody really likeable here), and lurches into tragedy. She keeps things whizzing along, but we still have time for the touching, intimate moments. In this she was helped by subtle and clever lighting from Jim Simmons, and an effective sound/music score from Matthew Bugg.
The design and costumes do not reflect the director’s sureness of touch, however. Very specific elements of pillars and doors and false trees sit uncomfortably with an effective, non specific, opening stage picture. Costumes seem to be rather disorganised; styles are inconsistent, and the strains of clothing so many people show in not enough changes.
IVAKIN/ Chief of Police: Tony Boncza
MATVEY Gogin: Gavin O’Donoghue
DUNYA’S HUSBAND: Frank Ellis
Savelyevich Golovastikov PAVLIN: Terry Taplin
Maria Ivanovna VESYOLINKA: Sarah Miller
Porphiry DROBYAZGIN: Alex Ratcliffe
Arkhip Fomich PRITYKIN: Adam Smethurst
Dr. MAKAROV: Mark Jax
Mavriky Osipovich MONAKHOV: John McAndrew
LYDIA Pavalovna Bogayevskaya: Samantha Holland
NADIEZHDA Polikarpovna Monakhova: Cate Debenham-Taylor
PELAGEYA Ivanovna Pritykina: Deirdra Morris
Tatyana Nikolayevna BOGAYEVSKAYA: Tricia Kelly
Vassily Ivanovich REDOZOBOV: Michael Stroud
STEPAN Danilovich Lukin: Nicholas Boulton
Sergei Nikolayich TSYGANOV: Jay Villiers
ANNA Fyodorovna Cherkoon: Rebecca Johnson
STYOPA: Isabella Jane Fane
Yegor Petrovich CHERKOON: Simon Wilson
GRISHA: Patrick Connolly
KATYA: Hannah Scott
Directed by Joanna Read
Designed by Nancy Surman
Lighting Design by Jim Simmons
Music and Sound design by Matthew Bugg
Sponsored by Smith and Williamson
2003-05-12 19:54:51