CHIMPS To 16 May.

Ipswich.

CHIMPS
by Simon Block.

New Wolsey Theatre To 16 May 2009.
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat 13, 16 May 2.30pm.
Audio-described 16 May 2.30pm (+ Touch Tour).
BSL Signed 15 May.
Captioned 12 May 13 May 2.30pm.
Runs 2hr 35min One interval.

TICKETS: 01473 295900.
www.wolseytheatre.cxo.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 5 May.

Increasingly intense battle to the dotted-line.
This 1997 play explores the consequences of the notion that there’s no such thing as society, only individuals and families. Two characters here are about to start a family. Four years out of college, Stevie’s pregnant, but life’s also showing that her tall, charismatically attractive partner Mark, a real Romeo in Ben Lambert’s performance (for Shakespeare’s Globe last year) isn’t measuring up to life’s responsibilities.

Both the men who call on them one Saturday afternoon care about their families; the more ruthless is the fonder father. But earning their own families’ crusts means they regard Mark and Stevie as creatures to experiment upon, valuable only as signatures on a contract.

There’s comedy in the salesmen’s devious ingenuity, their gradual approach, the refusal ever to name a price: it’s never spoken out-loud and instantly becomes malleable, with minor reductions used to bamboozle the naïve Mark.

But matters get nasty.Seriously so. For there’s a double-tussle going on, giving edge-of-seat thrills. Stevie uses the visitors to test her dreamy illustrator husband and see whether he can assert himself to throw them out of the house. As he keeps trying, their practised technique plays comically upon his self-satisfied self-image, thereby manipulating the couple’s relationship. Soon Mark’s lapping up their mix of flattery and disdain, not noticing their evident contempt.

Yet, for all their training such behaviour strains the conscience of all but the most determined seller, as they lie and cheat, even to a well-learned script. So both partnerships are finally split apart, with the final battle between the strong on each side.

Peter Rowe’s Ipswich revival sometimes strains credulity. As with the home pair, all is not as it first seems in the relationship of the invading duo. And while Vinta Morgan’s Gabriel manages subterfuge and manipulation with a pace that sustains the situation, Nick Wilton’s determinedly cheery Lawrence pushes the insults over-obviously.

There may occasionally be more notes to Stevie and Mark’s relationship than appear here, though it generally develops well. And the closing stages of this battle, with Jenny Platt’s Stevie wheeling through intensity, mockery and weary disappointment, are riveting.

Mark: Ben Lambert.
Gabriel: Vinta Morgan.
Stevie: Jenny Platt.
Lawrence: Nick Wilton.

Director: Peter Rowe.
Designer: Foxton.
Lighting: James Farncombe.
Fight director: Phillip D’Orleans.

2009-05-12 01:09:04