BLUE: Sarma, Latchmere till 7 December

London

BLUE
by Ursula Rani Sarma

Latchmere Theatre To 7 December 2002
Tue-Sat 8pm Mat Sat & Sun 5pm
Runs 1hr 30min No interval

TICKETS 020 7978 7040
Review Timothy Ramsden 24 November

Yet more theatre poetry from Ireland for solo voices: this is amongst the most moving.
Like Scotland's Isabel Wright in Blooded, Irish playwright Ursula Rani Surma shows a group of adolescent friends as childhood friendships come to the end of their shelf-lives. It's a poetic, compelling piece well performed by these three young actors.

There are tensions and disappointments. Des is practising hard at the Atlantic's edge for the forthcoming swimming championships, only to find himself pulled from the team at the last moment. It seems he's wanted for football duties.

There's also the lure of urban life, particularly on the follower Joe. Kevin O' Leary looks as if he's absorbed a good number of calories less than his character seems to have done, but he gives a sense of the awkward lad who wants to be led, making him prey to the drugs gang from the city, with their sense of excitement and belonging.

Mournful Danny moves between them, creating her own hopes and sadness. They rarely speak, most of the script being direct-to-audience narrative rather than dialogue. It seems to work remarkably well with Irish plays and English ears. This play tends much more to the dreamy than the spiky end, though having its moments of sharpness in the recounted action.

But overlying, and well caught by all three performers in Joss Bennathan's fluid direction, is a pervading sense of loss. The loss of childhood certainties (which, in retrospect, bind in childhood doubts), drowned under the incoming sea of adult life and separations, is especially marked in such a remote community, at once enclosed and exposed to wind and water.

So it's no surprise that drowning plays a significant part in the framing imagery. The tiny space, with Jens Cole's isolated rocks, increases the language's intensity in this treasurable piece.

Des: Aidan O' Hare
Joe: Kevin O' Leary
Danny: Corinna Cunningham

Director: Joss Bennathan
Designer/Costume: Jens Cole
Lighting: Guy Hoare
Sound: Jim Turner

2002-12-07 16:53:34