CHRISTMAS ON MARS. To 26 April.

London

CHRISTMAS ON MARS
by Harry Kondoleon

Triple J Productions at the Finborough Theatre To 26 April 2003
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Sun 3.30pm
Runs 2hr 5min One interval

TICKETS: 020 7373 3842
Review: Timothy Ramsden 20 April

Offbeat comedy in a clued-up production.Welcome back to the Finborough. Just south of Earl’s Court, this aptly-named venue (over the seriously redesigned Finborough pub in Finborough Road) continues to introduce an array of drama to British theatre. It may not have the gloss of some new-writing venues but it’s usual to find something satisfyingly unexpected. Artistic Director Neil McPherson isn’t someone to be caught up in modes or schools: each Finborough production, like it a little or a lot, has a voice of its own.

Harry Kondoleon was apparently big in New York theatre for a decade before his AIDS-related death in 1994, aged 39. His play starts with Bruno and Audrey renting an apartment, on the verge of deciding to marry. Then, instead of building their lives on these twin commitments, the play strips away just about everything at white-heat speed, as they rush from just about every commitment possible.

Bruno is a male model; only he’s not called Bruno and his modelling seems to have shaded off into some shadowy activities, judging by the letters his flatmate - a fantasising air-steward, recently sacked – brings unexpectedly to the new home the twosome hope Audrey’s mum will finance.

Except Audrey hyperventilates at the idea of mum arriving, rehearsing the cruelties Ingrid inflicted on her childhood. Ingrid denies them, claiming a greater cruelty: desertion. While the prospect of Audrey’s baby – about the one fact in these deception, delusion and illusion-filled lives – brings all four characters to the flat, the much-delayed birth, as it approaches, brings final impact, destruction and possible hope for the new parents.

A strange comedy; the characters combine destructive clarity about each other with personal self-regard. It’s absurd in every sense except being ridiculous. The more these people fly apart, the more they’re seeking the certainty of two-way trust in place of self-obsessed mutual manipulation. Joss Bennathan's production rightly plays it fast and light.

Janie Dowling’s flat, rapid speech sometimes reduces to actor’s patter-technique, but generally joins her taut, streamed-down look to express a high-wire, nerve-end character. As the mother from Hell and back Joan Walker aptly offers last-word chic clothing, hairstyle and cold-composed manner.

Add Justin Brett’s expressive-eyed denial and the runaround nerviness of Andy Spiegel’s camp love-seeker, plus Rebecca Hansell’s set – comfortless nursery pink for a room with no seat, blinds down over windows variously real and imaginary – it’s one of the latter Ingrid finally looks through – and the Finborough does handsomely by an idiosyncratic play which explores relationships, even if it eventually leaves a feel the process was more one act than two in dimension.

Bruno: Justin Brett
Audrey: Janie Dowding
Nissim: Andy Spiegel
Ingrid: Joan Walker

Director: Joss Bennathan
Designer/Costume: Rebecca Hansell
Lighting: Andrew Taylor

2003-04-29 01:02:52