DAMAGES. To 23 July.
London
DAMAGES
by Steve Thompson
Bush Theatre Extended to 23 July 2004
Mon-Sat 8pm
Runs 1hr 55min One interval
TICKETS: 020 7610 4224
www.bushtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 8 June
Clock-ticking excitement in a look at media ethics that would make superb TV drama.To print or not to print? That's the question slugged over by two contrasting editorial types on a red-top tabloid. Working-class socialist (and therefore, inevitably, Scots) Lister, whose made his way through the ranks, vies with smooth graduate Bas. Their legal guardian is Abigail, who has past agendas with them both. Only older revising editor Howard, still working with pen and print in the computer age, seems above the fray, an apparent irrelevance in the new age.
Steve Thompson knows what he wants to say about journalism. He knows, too, how to set up a sense of urgency. A decision needs to be made, in the editor's convenient absence, whether to print a photo of a children's TV presenter semi-naked and apparently with her lover.
But Thompson dilutes any ethical debate with a suspense plot. The public interest is lost in the question of whether it's a set-up. Paul Albertson's clean-cut, good looking Bas and urgently honesty voice try to argue for a new, improved journalism which makes one wonder not so much which paper as which planet he thinks he's on.
Phil McKee's Lister sounds off furiously, but the part walks out on him, just as it does on the action. And Thompson similarly cops out, withholding the eventual decision and its consequences.
Roxana Silbert conceals some weak spots, inevitably exposing others through her fine-detailed direction. What can be done for Abigail is provided in Amanda Drew's excellent performance, the face flicking through personal emotion, and legal cross-calculations, her voice drily expressive of past suffering combating professional detachment.
While John Bett, elegant in bow-tie with wine-bearing picnic-hamper, has a shell that can bounce away the shafts from all comers. Howard's going and return late on, plus final plot twisting, would seem far more contrived without Bett's assured old-school manner, and eventually revealed core of pride.
As a TV thriller this would be a winner, for there plot would win over character and any sort of idea seem enriching. On stage, for all the plot interest and fine acting contributions, there remains a sense of something less than a scoop.
Lister: Phil McKee
Howard: John Bett
Bas: Paul Albertson
Abigail: Amanda Drew
Director: Roxana Silbert
Designer: Liz Cook
Lighting: Chahine Yavroyan
Sound: Matt McKenzie
2004-06-09 00:36:41