DANCING WITH THE ANGELS. To 17 September.
London
DANCING WITH THE ANGELS
by Michael Toumey
Union Theatre 204 Union Street SE1 To 17 September 2005
Tue-Sat 7.30pm
Runs 2hr 15min One interval
TICKETS: 020 7261 9876
www.uniontheatre.org
Review: Timothy Ramsden 9 September
Irish lives in Harrow; a family and a funeral.Dad's died suddenly and immediate family members gather in his Harrow home for the funeral. There's no doubting the Irish Catholicism from the garish religious pictures which, with colourful school portraits of the younger generation as children, contrast the otherwise sober plainness of a North London suburban household.
Dominating the room (not difficult on the Union's small stage) is the sofa where two young men lounge at the start, waiting for proceedings to begin. Eugene's the sensible one, while Sean's frivolous and feckless, borrowing money all round, and the only one not to take the day seriously. For him, dad's death is a release for the family. He may be right, as the objections are about his manner rather than arguments with his viewpoint.
But he enjoys annoying well-bred sister Maria. Her smart, tight-fitting black clothes contrast the brothers' comparative informality. Not quite dried-out ex-alcoholic Jimmy turns up to sit cheerily on the sidelines part, it seems, of his general genial way of getting through life.
Not so young Michael who arrives in a fury with Bernadette, the quiet one who seems a prisoner of her marriage but is more accommodated to life than first appears.
If there's a complaint about the play it's that author/director Michael Toumey doesn't do enough with these different characters in either of his roles. Certainly there's none of the resonance Brian Friel or Tom Murphy would have given the situation (none of the obscurity Murphy might well have imported too). And that's accentuated by the quite static staging, dictated by the ever-dominant sofa.
Yet the performances draw a likely family, its varying types held together by loyalties and personal sympathies while strains and undercurrents test the cohesion, its older generation keeping their Irish tones, the younger gone all Estuary. And Toumey makes a strong point by opening his first act with the 2 sons' having a go at each other around the sofa, while his second, post-funeral, begins with a beautifully sustained scene for the women, Mary Moore's mother reminiscing as she sits still between her daughters, the enthusiastically goodwilled Maria and quieter, reflective Bernadette.
Sean: Tom Sawyer
Eugene: Paul McCaffrey
Maria: Noeleen Comiskey
Mary: Margaret Moore
Uncle Jimmy: Michael Loughlan
Michael: Ed Taylor-Gooby
Bernadette: Susan Crothers
Director: Michal Toumey
Designer: Be Lucky Productions
Lighting: Steve Miller
2005-09-14 11:44:42