COLD MEAT PARTY. In rep to 10 May.
Manchester
COLD MEAT PARTY
by Brad Fraser
Royal Exchange Theatre In rep to 10 MaY 2003
Mon-Fri 7.30pm Sat 8pm Mat Wed 2.30pm Sat 4pm
24-26 April, 30 (eve) April-2 May, 7 (eve)-10 (mat) May
Runs: 2hr 5min One interval
TICKETS: 0161 833 9833
www.royalexchange.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden
Fragments of life build a mosaic of lives with first-rate production and performances.Brad Fraser’s latest fast-pack shuffle of scenes from the complicated lives and loves of Canada’s intelligentsia has a surprise Manchester setting. Resulting no doubt from the Exchange’s Canadian theatre exchange, it brings a suddenly dead (at 45) writers’ relatives and friends to the will-reading. Playing in repertory with Chekhov’s The Seagull, which ends with a young writer’s suicide, Fraser’s play is more sickness-ridden – there’s HIV and cancer – yet remains life-affirming.
Faded rock-star Marcus is trying not to marry his insistent Anglo-Toff partner Brynn, and spends time in bed with Nash, the late Keith’s widow. Her daughter Nancy tries a mild spell of lesbianism with dad’s Mancunian guest-house keeper Amanda, but it’s very provisional. The bed-hops all seem logical at the time: Fraser may be sexually cutting-edge but his characters set out – with varying degrees of understanding and success - to heal each others’ wounds.
Amid them is right-wing Canadian politician Dean, in denial over his homophobia. Trying to present himself as liberal, controlling his apoplexy at a gay marriage proposal made under his nose, he seems set-up as a comic hate figure. But Fraser, adept at creating a sense of mystery, is more sophisticated than that, eventually revealing Dean’s self-torturing secret (not the obvious closet-gay one) and the play ends with a touching recollection of the young Dean’s role in setting the characters’ relationships going.
Braham Murray’s superb direction has the brief scenes whizzing between living and bed room - one bed for all, as shifting relationships compose an all-encompassing sex-healing process. The snaps of Bruno Poet’s lighting reflect characters' spur-of-moment decisions and Liz Ashcroft’s set fills the stage while leaving room for all the interactions.
There’s a lot cooking here, despite the title (underworld slang for a funeral). An excellent cast catch all the ingredients’ richness. Geraldine Alexander plays Keith’s widow with ever-alert concentration. It’s fascinating to see Tom Hodgkins, the calm centre of The Seagull’s theatrical crew, as the angst-ridden Dean. Helen Atkinson Wood’s mystery woman has a plausibility she could easily lack, while Kellie Bright and Emma Lowndes give rich, contrasting life to their characters.
Nash: Geraldine Alexander
Fritz: Helen Atkinson Wood
Amanda: Kellie Bright
Dean: Tom Hodgkins
Nancy: Emma Lowndes
Brynn: Joseph Millson
Marcus: Colin Tierney
Director: Braham Murray
Designer: Liz Ashcroft
Lighting: Bruno Poet
Sound: Steve Brown
Dialect: William Conacher
2003-04-17 02:33:41