BURLEIGH GRIMES. To 3 July.
London
BURLEIGH GRIMES
by Roger W Kirby
Bridewell Theatre To 3 July 2004
Tue-Sun 7.30pm Mat Sun 3.30pm
Runs 2hr 20min One interval
TICKETS: 020 7936 3456
Review: Timothy Ramsden 13 June
71A Productions' energised play on the glamour of money, power and sex seizes the Bridewell. Rampant US stock-trader Burleigh Grimes, whose meteoric success and plummeting fortunes are as great as the shares he trades, believes capitalism is human nature (red in tooth, claw and braces) and rumour the new truth. The first is the wake-up call and early morning orange juice of financial America; the second recalls the famous print the legend' line from John Ford's end-of-the-line Western The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance.
Burleigh's mother named him after the last US baseball pitcher who sneaked spittle onto the ball, giving it a winning unpredictability. The practice (aka cheating) was banned, though Burleigh was allowed to continue employing it until he reached the same sort of affluent retirement his namesake achieves here poolside tropical leisure.
For Burleigh never loses, aided by leading financial journalist Bigley. She's not the only character to have renamed themself for the thrust-and-cut world adrenalined by repeated out-takes from Starbucks. The few moments when playwright Roger Kirby needs to employ the device of Grimes' employees Buck and Hap explaining things to us via newcomer George are covered by forceful performances and the pulse of Steven Little's production.
The satire is high-rollered by a backing trio, rocking the joint or smooching for romantic moments, and Nicolai Hart Hansen's raised set, all transparent, glacial floor and Turner-prize like cases hanging overhead, with motifs some whole, some sections of the super-affluent life (a restaurant awning, modern art, a bewigged head: art, ancestor of these money-people, or both?).
Characters rush, jump or sit with brief urgency on this set, and occasionally clatter on the Bridewell's gallery, used for media announcements to persuade the mere public to shove their pockets of money whatever way suits Burleigh.
Energetic performances all round, John Guerrasio horribly fascinating as a modern Volpone, his eyes falling in default mode on any female protuberance in sight, Sally Pressman slick or viper-like as women exploiting his lusty energy, Joanne Redman the only one to frown as the moral counterforces (a gamelan Princess and vegetarian researcher Bigley force-feeds pate) and Jack Tarlton as the old-money scion choosing unsentimentally between gamelan and gain.
Buck: Giles Fagan
Burleigh: John Guerrasio
Hap: Richard Hollis
Bigley: Kristin Milward
Burleigh's Wife: Sally Pressman
Grace Redding: Joanne Redman
George: Jack Tarlton
Director: Steven Little
Designer/Coastume: Nicolai Hart Hansen
Lighting: Ace McCarron
Composer/Musical Director: Jane Watkins
Movement: Omar F Okai
Company Voice work: Sally Grace
2004-06-14 14:32:41