DARWIN IN MALIBU: till 31 May
Birmingham
DARWIN IN MALIBU: Crispin Whittell
Birmingham Rep The Door: Tkts 0121 236 4455
Runs: 2 h, one interval, till 31 May
Perfs: Eves 7.45 mats Th 15 and Sat 24 2.45
Head over heart, a real treat if this is your thing
Verbal rockets, squibs, starbursts and particularly Catherine wheels are the very stuff of this entertaining play. There's not a lot of plot, there's a lot of debate: this is a play very much for the head rather than the heart. Crispin Whittell's idea is simple – most of the good ones are: let's put Darwin, Wilberforce and Huxley together when they're dead and see how they get on. Let's put them somewhere unlikely – Malibu very much today. Intriguingly (and a crucial element in broadening the scope of the play) he then adds a modern and young American woman.
Then lights the blue touch paper.
They debate big questions (no half measures here.) Where are we? Why are we here? Why were we alive? Is God/ death/ the universe and everything? Whittell writes with great confidence allowing us to feel at ease with what he's doing. His wit is evenly spread throughout the script – it never dips and it keeps a grip on our concentration. He deftly uses contrasts within his fragile structure. Huxley's bombastic up-tightness (tightly buttoned three piece suit) is well contrasted with Darwin's laid-back down-looseness (modern open shirt, shorts and sandals). The academic nature of the debate (Darwin, Huxley, Wilberforce) is contrasted sharply with the humanity of the relationship between Darwin and young Sarah – whose boyfriend is tellingly heard distantly playing a guitar on the beach.
The Rep put up a beautifully balanced company. Sylvester Morand's corpulent, bearded, so chilled out Darwin (what a way to have gone!), Bruce Alexander's Huxley – he couldn't be a greater contrast, every muscle tense, hardly ever still, always mentally looking over his shoulder. Michael Elwyn's Wilberforce is rather a nice chap, full of goodwill without quite ever being irritatingly full of it. And Cressida Whyte's Sarah – quietly centred in a way the other characters aren't, quite different from them but part of the unity.
Director John Dove expertly handles all, keeping the play high on energy and good humour. My only qualms . . . in the small Door space I frequently found it all a bit high on decibels and I wonder if Whittell in the final spoken moments isn't striving too much for closure: perhaps this is the one time in his play when less might have said more.
Darwin: Sylvester Morand
Sarah: Cressida Whyte
Huxley: Bruce Alexander
Wilberforce: Michael Elwyn
Director: John Dove
Designer: Michael Taylor
Lighting: Matthew England
2003-05-15 11:56:49