DUCK: Stella Feehily

Tour

DUCK
by Stella Feehily

Out of Joint/Royal Court production Tour to 22 November 2003 then Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs 26 November -10 January 2003

TICKETS: 020 7565 5000 (Royal Court)
Review: Kim Durham: 18 Sept at The Door, Birmingham Repertory Theatre

A vivid and bruising account of growing up and growing away. New writing given a five star production.Sexual healing, sings Marvin Gaye during a scene change. And that would seem to be what Cat, the eponymously nicknamed Duck, is needily seeking.

This first full-length play by Stella Feehily offers a raw, bruising account of the coming of age of two teenage girls in Dublin. Both are desperate to grow up and to be away.

While Cat looks to be rescued by a man, not usually the best strategy for finding the ideal mate, her friend Sophie is depending on a university education to offer a way out. It's quite a struggle and, seemingly, an unresolved one for both of them.

Cat, in a luminous performance by Ruth Negga, suffers the worst of it, turning from an abusive relationship with an oafish club owner to seek validation from an aging writer, who can't believe his luck. Though tender, he too ultimately betrays her.

Feehily creates a vivid clutch of characters, strongly drawn and beautifully fleshed out in this Out of Joint/Royal Court production. You're fortunate as a new writer to get as classy a showing as Max Stafford-Clark gives this play - from the cleanly economic multi-location set design by Jonathan Fensom to the exceptional performances, she is very well served.

If it feels still a bit like a first effort, with some jarring moments of melodrama and seeming non-sequiturs thrown into the mix, there is nevertheless a lot of very strong writing here. In the most sharply drawn scenes, when Cat returns to her parents' home, Feehily deftly sketches a taut picture of acute family dysfunction.

Presided over by a neurotically sexually repressive mother (one of a series of beautifully detailed cameos by Gina Moxley), even the most brutal of alternatives would seem a preferable option.

Yet there is tenderness here too, and a yearning neatly hinted at by Cat and her brother fondly listing the Mr. Men stories their father used to tell them.

And that is what Feehily does best in this promising debut stripping away the armour of street-tough pseudo-adulthood worn by her young characters to reveal the wounded children beneath.

Gillian/ Val/ Marion: Gina Moxley
Cat: Ruth Negga
Eddie/ Amanda/ Michael: Aidan O'Hare
Jack/ Frankie: Tony Rohr
Mark: Karl Shiels
Sophie: Elaine Symons

Director: Max Stafford-Clark
Designer: Jonathan Fensom
Lighting: Johanna Town
Sound: Paul Arditti
Asst Director: Naomi Jones

2003-09-21 15:57:56