BASIL AND BEATTIE. To 15 May.
Manchester/Liverpool
BASIL AND BEATTIE
by Linda Brogan
Royal Exchange Studio Manchester to 8 May
Mon-Fri 7.30pm Sat 8pm Mat Thu 2.30pm Sat 4pm
Post-show discussion 6 May
then Everyman Theatre Liverpool 11-15 May 2004
Tue-Sat 7.45pm
Runs 1hr 35min No interval
TICKETS: 0161 833 9833
www.royalexchange.co.uk(Manchester)
0151 709 4776
boxoffice@everymanplayhouse.com (Liverpool)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 3 May
Slow-fused play gradually reveals its points.There's no doubt a fascinating study or season to be made of the Caribbean experience in Britain. Recent plays such as this and the Talawa/Royal Court Blest Be The Tie cast a Caribbean light on reflections from the far end of life.
Linda Brogan assembles two outsiders come long ago to England and coupled though never married. Nowadays, Caribbean Basil and Irish Beattie live off their pride, cross affection and out-of-date biscuits. She doggedly cares for his sick body (cue the statutory gruesome scene after he's lost bladder control) with a pugnacity that turns defensive when posh relatives arrive. The claims of family and his relationship with Beattie, rooted in old love or need, compete.
Rising star of the Exchange directorate Sarah Frankcom clearly delineates, moment by stressed moment, the shabby habituation, fatigue and tedium, of this long-term partnership, contrasting it with the easy familiarity of intrusive outsiders. Ruby's smug smartness and Neville's forced affability are caught by Denise Orita and Everal A Walsh, her face mixing pride and contempt, his attempts at cheeriness cast down when suspicious Beattie guards the lavatory from what she suspects are prying eyes, though it's merely another full bladder.
Daughter Lauren's given a low-keyed performance by Donna Alexander, perhaps in recognition that Brogan never fully develops the character - or the explanation of her bruised face nor gives her the easy cameo identity of the relatives.
For the play focuses on its title pair. Just as the couple's past is laboriously unearthed through the action, Frankcom's production demands we wait outside their lives until gradually invited in. The sense of slowness is increased by Angela Simpson's set, spreading kitchen, living-room and, via a suggested staircase, bedroom across a wide area.
Wyllie Longmore and Eileen O'Brien give beautifully-acted displays of age, every move effortful, routine actions needing care and preparation. O'Brien's face shows Beattie's lifelong survival struggle, while Longmore brings vocal richness and variety to support his proud, ultimately defiant stance amid the petty patterns of daily life.
This could add up to tedium; instead, it eventually grips through the integrity of writing, direction and performances.
Beattie: Eileen O' Brien
Basil: Wyllie Longmore
Lauren: Donna Alexander
Ruby: Denise Orita
Neville: Everal A Walsh
Director: Sarah Frankcom
Designer: Angela Simpson
Lighting: Mark Distin
Sound: Robert Donnelly-Jackson
Dialect: Wyllie Longmore
2004-05-06 09:34:46