BETWEEN WORLDS. To 30 September.
London
BETWEEN WORLDS
by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Union Theatre 204 Union Street SE1 0LX To 30 September 2006
Tue-Sat 7.30pm
Runs 2hr 15min One interval
TICKETS: 020 7261 9876
www.mlmothproductions.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 9 September
Life goes on in some form in a strange modern fantasy.
In the 1920’s Sutton Vane’s Outward Bound introduced us to a ship of the dead, articulate and unaware of their status as they originally were. In the 1940s Jean-Paul Sartre’s Huis Clos gave a more self-conscious dead trio, one famously declaring, “Hell is other people”.
Erik-Emmanuel Schmitt doesn’t occupy quite the same territory. He uses a mix of hotel and hospital, allowing a close-up survey of different human types in extreme circumstances. Entering by lift, these people are confined while their bodies’ fates are decided below on earth. According to the outcome the lift eventually returns to take each back down to life on earth, or up to a new dimension.
From the grumpy Company Chairman, sure he’s been sent to a madhouse by mistake, trying to use patronage to get what he wants, to sweet Laura, the final arrival, they show a spectrum of humanity. Laura’s a regular, one of those born with disease and decay inherent from childhood. While her arthritic young body again fights for life, she ranges joyously free of its limitations above.
Presiding is the firmly efficient Dr S, perceived differently by each inhabitant, her identity left tantalisingly open but which Mark Bullock’s production and Maria Bates’ performance fail to amplify, though Bates provides a calm, professionally smiling confidence and courtesy.
It’s the hallmark of this production, which introduces an amiably intriguing piece to England. There’s efficiency throughout, but limitations in technique and /or scope of characterisation keep obtruding. The older visitors, the Chairman and Magus, have lively moments, the irritation of Alan Buckman’s businessman and off-handedness towards life of Matthew Lane’s long-term patient Magus nicely contrasted. But they never move beyond those basic traits, nor explore them in varied ways.
The limits are clearest between Laura and her lover, the initially inconsiderate Colin. When we learn she needs a new heart to live and his body’s utterly mangled, we think we know what’s coming. Something different happens, but any impact’s muffled by the generalised emotional expression. Lakin Mors provides an effective set for the Union’s small space in this collector’s-piece variation on Sartre.
Young Man: Tyrone Yansen
Young Woman: Siobhan Campbell
Colin: Anthony Wolfe
Magus: Matthew Lyne
Chairman: Alan Buckman
Jessie: Carole Coyne
Dr S: Maria Bates
Laura: Lydia Watkins
Director/Sound: Mark Bullock
Designer: Lakin Mors
Lighting: Stuart Draper
Costume: Edwina Watson, Sian Parry
Assistant director: Anton Krause
2006-09-13 09:35:10