DEAD MAN'S COAT. To 3 December.

London

DEAD MAN’S COAT
by Hajdana Baletic

Blue Elephant Theatre 59a Bethwin Road SE5 To 3 December 2005
Tue-Sat 8pm
Runs 1hr 25min No interval

TICKETS: 020 7701 0100
www.blueelephanttheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 25 November

Frontline report about the Leviathan of war at the Blue Elephant.
This is the central dramatic slice of the Blue Elephant’s autumn season of Balkan drama, film and art. Serbian writer Hajdana Baletic’s play is about property and ownership and the dislocation war brings. It’s set in a society where a lover’s death in the army means his parents’ house being sold; a society where another faction is always ready to move in, literally; where any option can be an advantage to be taken. House-seller Nemed is callous to Vera, as he is servile towards potential buyers of the peeling-wallpapered room where Baletic’s play is set. It’s shelter and it was home. And now Vera, tired and bereaved, is being displaced.

In this society, the Nemeds come out of the woodwork without having peered down the barrel of a gun and end up in office, complacently sure they’re the salt of their country’s new-order. Yet when Nemed does have a gun put to his head he sneaks out, leaving Vera the keys. For the previous owner’s son is alive, well and reclaiming his family’s territory.

Or is he? Vera’s surprise is about more than his hungry sexual falling on her. There are ugly revelations here about identity and a testing of the bland statement all’s fair in love and war. Under battle pressure desire turns liquid and nasty. This is where a brutalised society leads.

Antonio Ribiero’s production avoids letting heated passions become overwrought. This can lead to a distanced coolness which leaves everything clear but with a muffled impact. Though that could be a safe British perspective: how many nerves would be left after the pounding the Balkans had been taking?

Kristina Erdely’s Vera tries going about daily business with a stranger both saving and invading her room and bed. It’s a pointed portrait, at times matched by Alan Marni’s returned warrior, bringing the different ways of survival by force with him. In quieter moments they achieve a vivid intensity; it’s when his voice is raised Marni falls into the kind of uncharacterised, generalised roar afflicting so many performers. Not perfectly pitched then, but a valuable report from Europe’s frontline.

Nenad Puzich: Steven Anstee
Vera: Kristina Erdely
Andrei Mrdjen: Alan Marni
Woman: Gigi Burgdorf
Man: Christopher Kinread
Radio Voice: Evie Dawnay

Director: Antonio Ribiero
Designer: Mamoru Iriguchi
Lighting: Ben Pacey
Sound/Music: Daniel Biro

2005-11-30 23:57:56