BIG LOVE. To 21 October.
London
BIG LOVE
by Charles L Mee
Gate Theatre To 21 October 2006
Mon-Sat 7.30pm
Runs 1hr 35min No interval
Tickets: 020 7229 0706
www.gatetheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 4 October
The new comedy of the old tragedy.
Cunning Charles L Mee. Six years ago the American playwright took a little-known Aeschylus tragedy, turning it into a modern contest of the sexes. Supplicants shows 50 sisters arriving in a foreign country (here, Italy) seeking protection from the 50 male cousins they’re being forced to marry (dwarfing Seven Brides for Seven Brothers towards Beckettian minimalism).
The modern sisters are offered protection, over-ridden when the cousins arrive in force, family members from America zooming in by helicopter. Mee starts improbably, with Lydia helping herself to a bath in a rich man’s house, believing it’s a hotel (ever tried walking unannounced into a hotel bath?). Though Victoria Yeates’ happy-splashy Lydia’s the sort to do such a thing in all innocence.
Early on there’s talk about the exile’s condition, while several place-names recall the Greek origin. Such things fade as the real arguing begins. Georgia Mackenzie’s dreamy Olympia lets down the sisterhood with shamefaced expressions of sudden guilt. In contrast, Helen Baker’s severe, short-haired Thyona, has the determined vehemence of the most committed seventies feminist.
She’s matched (or to be hitched) to Alexi Kaye Campbell’s alpha-male Constantine. Olympia’s partner Oed’s the least-developed character, while Lydia’s clearly destined for a happy life with considerate Nikos. As multiple weddings turn to almost as many funerals, the tragic unexpectedly plunges into a piece enhanced by Melissa Kievman’s sympathetic production (heightened by Ann Yee’s choreography), its swift, limpid quality only occasionally tugging the script towards an easy laugh.
Mee’s good at the provocative one-liner and at the developed case. Maybe this is how people marry Nazis, Lydia suddenly realises, followed soon by Olympia saying she was only obeying orders. He can also make a viewpoint seem unarguable one moment, outmoded the next.
Good work by all the young characters - Campbell and Baker make a forceful opposition for each other - is balanced by Ann Mitchell’s reflective matriarch and Tim Hardy’s Piero, replete with the restrained authority of the rich. Alex Waldmann’s pleasantly gay Giuliano skitters round the edges, only a memory of a meeting on a train suggesting any relationship based on desire has its own darkness.
Thyona: Helen Baker
Constantine: Alexi Kaye Campbell
Oed: Charlie Cattrall
Nikos: Bradley Gardner
Piero/Leo: Tim Hardy
Olympia: Georgia Mackenzie
Bella/Eleanor: Ann Mitchell
Giuliano: Alex Waldmann
Lydia: Victoria Yeates
Ensemble: Serena Brabazon, Jennifer Graham, Conor Irwin, Heriberto Montalban, Roger Ribo, Liya Wu
Director: Melissa Kievman
Designer: Hannah Clark
Lighting: David Howe
Sound: Neil Alexander
Choreographer: Ann Yee
Assistant director: Vicky Graham
Assistant designer: Natasa Stamatari
2006-10-05 12:04:51