DAYS OF SIGNIFICANCE till 20 January
DAYS OF SIGNIFICANCE: Roy Williams
RSC, The Swan
Runs: 1h 35m, no interval, till 20 January
Review: Rod Dungate, 18 January 2007
Days of Significance is published by Methuen Drama (see direct link to Amazon below to buy a copy)
Powerful idea, but fails to fulfil its potential
Roy Williams’s play (or plays) deals with an important and relevant issue. The problem is that you don’t realise what it is until it’s way too late; worse, is that Williams doesn’t seem to realise it until it’s too late. The main problem may lie in the form of the work – is it three linked plays or is it one play? Are we meant to consider the three sections as a whole or divorced from one another? It’s billed as a response to Much Ado About Nothing; for me, at least, any meaningful connection passed me by. Moreover, the play lacks any feeling of event, so that ultimately you leave unmoved and unfulfilled.
Days of Significance looks at issues around the UK’s involvement in the war in Iraq. An important enough issue to look at in drama. But a play needs a more focused approach to this topic if we are to be held by it and involved in the debate. Often Williams’s approach to his topic seems generalised . . . a sort of ‘This war fucks us all up.’ Well, maybe, but it might be a good idea to put forward a more coherent debate that we, in the audience, might engage with.
The first section revolves round a number of young people setting off on a night’s clubbing, their main aims are to get pissed and to get laid. The focus in this section is on two of the young men who are spending their last weekend at home before going to Iraq. This focus is confirmed in the middle section (Iraq) when one of the young men (Ben) is clearly to the fore. Somewhat confusingly, Ben doesn’t appear in the third section of the play (back home) when the focus switches to Hannah; Hannah appeared in the first section and is now torn between support for her boyfriend/ ex-boyfriend, Ben, or her new beliefs in the cruelty of the war.
This third section, focusing on Hannah is by a million miles the most successful. In Claire-Louise Cordwell’s performance, Hannah’s anguish is painfully clear. Not just anguish at the cruelty involved in the Iraq war, but also at her personal ability to handle or even express the changes she is going through, moving, as she is, out of her dead-end existence – she’s studying for a degree. This is where the work’s heart is. It even survives Maria Aberg’s harsh and self-acknowledging directing.
Aberg’s direction makes no allowance for our involvement in the dramas; too often she allows us to be excluded.
The middle section works well – three soldiers sheltering from an ambush. There’s humanity here, tension, a sense of danger and some welcome dark humour. The opening section feels old-fashioned, though, like very early Bond. And despite some spirited acting takes us nowhere.
Bouncer: Jason Barnett
Lenny: Nigel Cooke
Tony/ Sean: Daniel Dalton
Ben: Jamie Davis
Dan: Trystan Gravelle
Steve: Simon Harrison
Vince: Richard Katz
Drunken Man: Robin Lawrence
Jamie: Ashley Rolfe
Brookes/ Bouncer: Mark Theodore
Hannah: Claire-Louise Cordwell
Gail: Amanda Daniels
Trish: Pippa Nixon
Clare: Michelle Terry
Donna: Ony Uhiara
Director: Maria Aberg
Set/ Costume Designer: Lizzie Clachan
Lighting: David Holmes
Sound: Carolyn Downing
2007-01-19 12:10:35