DYING CITY. To 10 June.

London

DYING CITY
by Christopher Shinn

Royal Court Theatre (Jerwood Theatre Upstairs) To 10 June 2006
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Sat 4pm
BSL Signed 23 May
Post-show discussion 23 May
Runs 1hr 40min No interval

TICKETS: 020 7565 5000/020 7565 5100 (10am-6pm)
www.royalcourttheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 18 May

Immaculate but lifeless.
Christopher Shinn’s play is technically beyond reproach, like the acting and most other aspects of James Macdonald’s production. Time shifts in New York therapist Kelly’s apartment between 2004 when she’s with husband Craig, and 2005, when the dead Craig’s gay actor brother Peter pesters her. Craig apparently blew his head off as a soldier in Iraq.

But little points irk: the contrived-seeming excuses for each male character to leave the stage and cue a character change, or the way the Royal Court, currently celebrating the 50th anniversary of Look Back in Anger and so-called ‘kitchen sink’ drama, here has the neat equivalent of a kitchen sink half-hidden at the back and side, necessitating a step round a vertical glass plate over a risky-looking but unexplained hole in the floor every time a cup of tea comes into prospect.

Worrying about such things shows impatience with the play. As these people argue on, despite their technically accomplished performances neither Sian Brooke nor Andrew Scott convince as more than pieces of very professional acting. No character comes to life in the self-obsessed ramblings, reminiscent of Arthur Miller at his most garrulous. Except that Shinn’s dialogue employs post-Caryl Churchill, post-David Mamet nervy overlaps, which here seem a stylistic mannerism.

Peter’s personal worries (he has just walked out of a performance midway after an older actor insulted him) might be meant to contrast Craig’s political anxieties, or both might be intended to mix public and personal concerns. But nothing is made to matter to anyone as much as it does to the characters, who therefore merely seem self-important. Nor do they become independent from the sense of being part of a playwright’s scheme.

In the anguished confines of their comparative affluence, amid their disconnection of affection (Kelly has changed ‘phone numbers to avoid contact from Peter), the intensity and lengthy relation of feelings merely seem self-indulgent. The public dimension becomes exploitative; Shinn never makes the characters deserve this focus. Frankly, my dears, I don’t give a damn: a lot of people have suffered a load more than you. Including Iraqis, who here become a mere footnote to your unimportant angst.

Kelly: Sian Brooke
Peter/Craig: Andrew Scott

Director: James Macdonald
Designer/Lighting: Peter Mumford
Sound: Ian Dickinson
Dialect coach: Majella Hurley
Company voice work: Patsy Rodenburg
Assistant director: Hanna Berrigan

2006-05-22 08:18:50