BLACKWATER ANGEL. To 25 March.

London

BLACKWATER ANGEL
by Jim Nolan

Finborough Theatre To 25 March 2006
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Sun 3.30pm
Runs 2hr 30min One interval

TICKETS: 0870 4000 838
www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 5 March

Mystic and material mix in strong Irish play.
Ireland’s dramatic world clearly has another writer in the vein of Tom Murphy, whose The Gigli Concert played at the Finborough last year. Jim Nolan, too, explores the inner psychology and spiritual life of his characters, refusing to be pinned down by thematic statements or easily-explained characters.

Here, he’s picked out from history the story of Cromwellian Irishman Valentine Greatrakes, who discovered in adulthood he had the power of a healer. Greatrakes’ first speciality was scrofula, the ‘King’s Evil’ mentioned in lines (usually cut) in Macbeth; later he healed other sicknesses. He subsequently wrote about his work to Robert Boyle, so bringing his mystic gift into contact with the newly scientific-minded British society of the 1660s.

Nolan imagines Greatrakes suddenly losing this healing power, and his subsequent interior crisis. It links to the appearance of phenomena outside his scrubbed, Puritan world when a troupe of strolling players arrives with a revival of John Ford’s tragedy ‘The Broken Heart’. Greatrakes sees only a rehearsal but finds it engrossing, especially a wordless song added at the end.

The singer, Angel Landy, was discovered by the players when, during Cromwell’s suppression of theatres, they performed A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a midsummer forest; the girl appeared singing the song whose origin even she doesn’t know. Valentine becomes obsessed with Angel’s mysterious presence, especially when she returns, unable to sing and seeking curative help he can no longer give.

The curse of his temporary powers and Angel’s statedly non-carnal attraction to a person who seems hardly to know herself, contrasts the normality of Valentine’s wife Ruth, and Lizzie, the well-disposed servant who’s almost Ruth’s companion, her brother Michael (the first person cured by Valentine) and the ever-loyal Thomas.

Sean Campion expresses sharply Valentine’s inner turmoil and increasing distraction from the world around. That, and Fiona O’Shaughnessy’s fine Angel, fragile in voice and ethereal in presence, are well-contrasted by the firm ‘everyday’ lives of the others, notably Catherine Walker’s Ruth who combines concern for her husband with care for the disrupted household. Once again, the Finborough has made a significant contribution to our dramatic repertory.

Valentine Greatrakes: Sean Campion
Michael Maher: Stephen Cavanagh
Lizzie Maher: Laura Pyper
Ruth Greatrakes: Catherine Walker
Thomas Wyvern: Joseph Rye
Travelling Player: Michael Nersisyan
Mathias Everard: Kevin Colson
Eustacia Everard: Vicky Ogden
Angel Landy: Fiona O’Shaughnessy
Ellen Reilly/Travelling Player: Riona Kearney
Martin Reilly/Travelling Player: Aaron McCusker

Director: Mark Glesser
Designer: John Scheffler
Lighting: Petter Skramstrad
Music: Joe Townsend
Costume: Nell Knudsen
Assistant director: Kate Wasserberg
Associate designer: Alex Marker

2006-03-06 10:50:39