CARRIE'S WAR To 12 September.
London.
CARRIE’S WAR
by Nina Bawden adapted by Emma Reeves.
Apollo Theatre To 12 September 2009.
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Mat Tue, Thu, Sat 2.30pm.
Runs 2hr 20min One interval.
TICKETS: 0844 412 4658.
www.carrieswar.com (booking fee by ‘phone and online).
Review: Timothy Ramsden 25 June.
See the play – but don’t not read the novel.
Three things make stage adaptations of novels difficult: length, switches of scenes and the lack of the natural flow between speech and thought into which the author can naturally dip. And, of course, Nina Bawden’s book is considerably cheaper than tickets costing up to £39 each.
Yet, theatre offers a trip out and the ability to respond communally as family or other group to the story. And to see how adapter Emma Reeves, director Andrew Loudon, designer Edward Lipscomb – who creates a frond-surrounded hollow for the mystic Welsh location of Carrie Willow’s wartime evacuation with brother Nick - plus the actors interpret the story.
At least prices are below most West End costs, with seats available at £29 or £15 weekdays for under-16s, and group reductions. Created by Novel Theatre, the show went down well at Islington’s Lilian Baylis Theatre. A West End space is less forgiving to the traditional stagecraft Reeves and Loudon employ, and gives a distanced artificiality to such details as the stern Mr Evans’ clickety-click false teeth or the moments of heightened theatricality.
Yet this opens as the only play in the four Shaftesbury Avenue theatres off Piccadilly Circus. Sandwiched between musicals Thriller and Avenue Q, it is quieter, warmer and less sophisticated. The story’s war-length stretch shows the development in Carrie’s understanding, the dawning of sexual awareness - a nervous kiss – in her and precocious intellectual Albert and the contrast between confining religious respectability and free-flowing human goodness in the two homes either side of the stage.
Sarah Edwardson repeats her fine Carrie from the Lilian Baylis, showing the growth from politely considerate girl to sensible, considering young woman, while Sion Tudor Owen keeps Evans this side of black villain; he too has his vulnerability. Only his layabout army son is entirely unsympathetic, indicated in his mockery of the speech and movement of James Beddard’s Mr Johnny.
Among newcomers, Prunella Scales is a white-haired vision out of Wilkie Collins and Kacey Ainsworth shows natural goodness repressed by her brother. Not a replacement for the book, but enjoyable for those who’ll leave 21st century scepticism behind.
Carrie Willow: Sarah Edwardson.
Mrs Gotobed: Prunella Scales.
Carrie’s Son/Nick Willow: James Joyce.
Albert Sandwich: John Heffernan.
Billy: James Rhodes.
Mrs Fazackerly: Ann Micklethwaite.
Mr Rhys/Major Cass Harper/Frederick Evans: Daniel Llewelyn-Williams.
Mrs Davies: Holly Boothby.
Mr Owen: Peter Whitfield.
Hepzibah Green: Amanda Symonds.
Auntie Lou: Kacey Ainsworth.
Mr Evans: Sion Tudor Owen.
Mr Johnny: James Beddard.
Director: Andrew Loudon.
Designer/Costume: Edward Lipscomb.
Lighting: Matthew Eagland.
Sound: John Leonard.
Singing supervisor: Sue Appleby.
Choreographer: Holly Boothby.
Wigs/Hair: Darren Ware.
Accent/dialect: Dewi Hughes.
Fight dikrector: Philip d’Orleans.
2009-06-26 16:16:19