COLD HANDS. To 11 June.

London

COLD HANDS
by Christina Katic

Theatre 503 Latchmere Pub 503 Battersea Park Road SW11 To 11 June 2005
Tue-Sat 8pm Sun 5pm
Post-show discussion 25 May, 1 June
Runs 1hr 30min No interval

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info@theatre503.com
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Review: Timothy Ramsden 22 May

Strong acting in a fine new play.Apart from its own merits, this play provides a central role for Gabrielle Hamilton, who has been an invaluable supporting player in numerous productions. Always truthful and subtle, she's the kind of performer that makes theatregoing a joy and it's excellent and fitting she should take centre stage in a script worthy of her skill.

Chritina Katic has written a sympathetic account of the kind of family generational play that's been popular in recent years, but she brings to it a highly individual style. And if Sue Dunderdale's production doesn't resolve all the staging problems it does, with Norman Coates' apt set, make clear the issues and relationships.

Elderly Violet's first seen entering the room where the action's to happen through an opening where a wall should logically be and soon, there is one. But the living-room door's still leaning against another wall, and alongside the pretty, flowery wallpaper, fireplace, mirror and photos are all blank whites. The walls have an unreal perspective and there's a hole through the ceiling.

Amid this disturbing half-unreality Violet vents annoyance on the young Black woman who helps her, the voice hardening, the body shying from contact. It's soon apparent this isn't simply racism but Violet's emotional disconnectedness, which shows more vehemently against Mandy, her 40 year old daughter. Mind you, Mandy does burst in through the mirror, backing up the set's hints all is not straightforward.

And helpful young Anna cannot see or hear this new, mid-generation character. The production has fun providing an invisible man' logic of Mandy handling visible objects without Anna noticing until the appropriate moment. But it doesn't surmount the problem set by having to play a sustained, high-emotion scene while stuck waist-high in a mirror. Fine actor Sadie Shimmin makes what she can of the situation.

Some loose moments could tighten during the run, but generally these strong performances show mother's frustrated bitterness evoking daughter's bitter frustration, contrasted by bystander's kindly incomprehension When the resolution's reached and the real' reality realised, the surprises and abrasions of relationships are answered by a post-battle-of-life calm Dunderdale's production catches perfectly.

Violet: Gabrielle Hamilton
Mandy: Sadie Shimmin
Anna: Deborah Asante

Director: Sue Dunderdale
Designer: Norman Coates
Lighting: Phil Hewitt
Sound: John Leonard
Costume: Belle Mundy
Dramaturg: Rachel Coates
Assistant director: Lacy Warner

2005-05-25 17:13:10