BEAST ON THE MOON. To 17 November.

Nottingham.

BEAST ON THE MOON.
by Richard Kalinoski

Nottingham Playhouse To 17 November 2007.

Tue-Sat 7.45pm except 13 November 7.30pm Mat 10 Nov 2.30pm, 15 Nov 1.30pm.
Audio-described 13, 14 Nov.
BSL Signed 16 Nov.
Runs 2hr 15min One interval.

TICKETS: 0115 9419419.
www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk.
Review: Jen Mitchell 7th November 2007.

Hard-won happiness in the shadow of political tragedy.
Hold many relationships up to close scrutiny and myriad flaws appear – along with shadows of battles, arguments and compromises made along the way.

Such is the relationship between Seta and Aram, but the baggage both bring to the start of their relationship is more than most of us can comprehend.

They begin married life in Milwaukee under the shadow of the genocide inflicted on the Armenian people by the Turkish Government in 1915.

Aram (Youssef Kerkour) has ordered a bride, mail order style, from an orphanage and is initially outraged to find he has ordered a dead girl and been sent Seta (Karine Bedrossian) in her place. She’s a lively, spirited young girl, celebrating being alive and in America; hardly the serious Aram’s ideal partner. The play charts their lives together and how their relationship is haunted by earlier experiences, of which neither speak.

Within the confines of their living room they go about their everyday lives, punishing each other with disagreements and silences. They continue to evade the one issue that comes between them, until Seta eventually forces it into the open.

This little acknowledged, but widely known genocide is not the most obvious stuff of entertainment, yet this insightful look at the lives that follow is riveting. How do people carry on living after experiencing such horrors?

Aram keeps a picture of his family in the corner of the living room, their faces cut out. His desire is for Seta to fill all the spaces with pictures of their own children; to replace his previous family with one in the present.

What the couple eventually achieve is an accommodation, with the help of the young Vincent (Paul Greenwood), himself without family and support. The story is told through Vincent’s eyes, as a seventy year old trying to understand the couple who gave him the chance of a new life.

Both finely acted and directed, this piece is at once a reminder of the horrors than man can inflict upon man, and a poignant portrayal of the ability to overcome almost any horror and continue living.

Seta: Karine Bedrossian.
Gentleman/Vincent: Paul Greenwood.
Aram: Youssef Kerkour.

Director: Giles Croft.
Designer: Dawn Allsopp.
Lighting: James Farncombe.
Sound: Drew Baumohl.
Fight director: Matthew Bugg.
Voice coach: Sally Hague.

2007-11-09 23:51:34