CAVE DWELLERS. Tour to 23 March.
Scotland
CAVE DWELLERS
by Nicola McCartney
7:84 Theatre Company Scotland Touring Scotland to 23 March 2002
Reviewer Thelma Good 19 February
A particularly fascinating character, finely played, is this new play's strength.Nicola McCartney has found a successful structure for her story, with a particularly fascinating character played by an equally fascinating actor. As a play helping us put our selves in a refugee's shoes it succeeds by getting into the mind of this Man, whose story comes to trouble and disturb most at the play's end. Robert Burlin's music adds to the impact with its fusion of made and natural sounds.
As the play opens, we see this character, bare-chested and footed at the side of the stage. He is answering questions: Why and Where and What. It rapidly becomes clear he's new to this place and someone, apparently situated amongst us, is asking questions he finds odd.
Then behind him, into the centre of Evelyn Barbour's effective cave space, comes an old woman who has been cleared from her land once before, a young woman and a half-drowned boy, whom she saves and then rejects with disgust. They seem to authenticate the man's recollections as we see them wait to cross the sea to "over there" with someone called Josef - the smuggler of smugglers.
These three slightly sketchily scripted characters tiptoe on the remote verges of Waiting for Godot, but Cave Dwellers lacks its humour or sense of the absurd. What's missing is the humour that pops out of us when we are not in control. Tellingly, the audience's desire to laugh is strong. The playwright might have helped herself and us by finding places to cut the tension with a laugh.
Another slight flaw is the uncertainty about how well the characters understand one another; the mimed communication gestures are sometimes supported by the script, sometimes contradicted by it.
It all matters little when you have Liam Brennan as the Man. His performance as he berates, puzzles, or gets exasperated at, his inquisitors is a clear portrayal of a human who is experienced in far more than we complacent westerners. And his story and those of his companions do trouble our well fed, well protected selves.
And it could do well on radio.
Boy: Garry Collins
Man: Liam Brennan
Old Woman: Mary McCusker
Young Woman: Helen Devon
Director: Gordon Laird
Designer: Evelyn Barbour
Lighting: Dave Shea
Composer :Robert Burlin
Tour: Eden Court Invernsee 5 March, Mill Theatre Thurso 7 March, Universal Hall Findhorn 9 March, Woodend Barn Banchory 11 March, Brunton Musselburgh 13 March, Visual Statement Easterhouse 14 March, Village Hall Ballachulish 16 March, Tron Glasgow 19-23 March.
2002-03-04 02:27:37