CANCER TIME. To 26 September.

London

CANCER TIME
by Gary Owen

Theatre 503 Latchmere Pub, 503 Battersea Park Road SW11 3BW To 26 September 2004 Tue-Sat 8pm Sun 5pm
Runs 1hr 15min No interval

TICKETS: 020 7978 7040
Review: Timothy Ramsden 19 September

A cultural transplant grows well in English soil.From his serial monologue debut Crazy Gary's Moblie Disco Gary Owen has shown himself master of what you initially see being less than what you eventually get. Here, he moves from an already interesting start point to a more complex, and deeply satisfying depth. Housing this show, Theatre 503 (now called after the street number rather than the name of Battersea's Latchmere pub where it's always been based) indicates it's as purposeful a home for good new drama as ever.

The clean, disciplined environment of the call-centre has replaced factories and mines as a crucible of low-pay employment oppression. The compartmentalised box of Paul Burgess's set where Iola and Marad work sums up their monotonous captivity. No, Marad tells one caller to the power supply company where they take every opportunity to sell customers gas supply checks at £80 a throw, she's not in India, she's in Wales. Yes, she agrees, it is all the same to the caller.

Which makes it likely the original production for Sgript Cymru in what's here referred to a the language Welsh had a different impact at venues in Wales. Including the sensible English sentences which Marad believes are Welsh but Iola perceives as gobbledygook. The question of national identity and confidence in it recalls a Scottish equivalent in Trainspotting when denunciation of the English leads to Scottish self-contempt at how they've allowed the English to treat them.

Large themes for their break-out moments (the title refers to smoking-breaks, shared though Marad's a non-smoker and Iola downs more Cadbury's than nicotine) which increasingly merge into unreality. Some (but how much?) is a dream within a dream? Glistening presents open to reveal bereavements or lifetime prognostications. All human life is in this small cabin, its panels gradually demolished with care by Marad and force by Iola as they emerge from their occupational shell to become human.

Alex Clifton's production rolls the moods and types of reality into a coherent whole, with finely contrasted performances from Tonya Smith as live-wire Iola, rejected by the other workers and glad to have a new girl to chat brightly with, and Karen Paullada as someone for whom life is more serious.

Iola: Tonya Smith
Marad: Karen Paullada

Director: Alex Clifton
Designer/Costume: Paul Burgess
Lighting: Benjamin Polya
Sound: Phil Hewitt
Assistant director: Will Hammond

2004-09-21 14:55:18