EDEN END by J.B. Priestley. West Yorkshire Playhouse to 24 November

Leeds

EDEN END
by J.B. Priestley

Courtyard Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse To 24 November 2001
Runs 2hr 45min One interval

TICKETS 0113 213 7700
Review Timothy Ramsden 17 November

Another nail ripped from the Priestley coffin as Leeds shows why this early play is often described as 'Chekhovian'.Throughout his long life (he died in 1984) Priestley's golden age was always pre-World War I England. He was not looking back in complacency; Eden End has enough references to the social tensions of 1912 to show that. But he lamented the secure world of hard-working, decent people from places such as his West Yorkshire home city of Bradford, and the glorious hills around it, which, as he repeatedly pointed out, were only ever a short tram ride away.

Unlike An Inspector Calls, also set in 1912, Eden End does not look to the immediate future as a time of bigger profits or looming war but of general happiness. That it was actually the year of the Somme massacres would have been a chilling reminder of human tragedy and loss to the first audiences in 1934. Anyone who thinks Priestley was making an easy emotional point should read his account of the Bradford soldiers' re-union in English Journey, where deeply-felt anger blazes from one of the 20th century's great European humanists.

Eden End resembles in spirit Priestley's post-World War II drama The Linden Tree, another play where a family's younger members bring their fears and failures to a father whose steady influence is solidly built on the best pre-1914 values. Ian Lindsay's firm, slow figure, accepting age graciously, may have less insight than Robert Linden, but he is an anchor both for Dorothy Atkinson's beautifully performed stay-at-home daughter, and for Stella, the failed actress whose return home, in Samantha Robson's performance of calculated glamour, is always going to eclipse her sister.

The occasional humour rises naturally from the characters, especially brother Wilfred. Ken Bradshaw balances the young captain of African industry with the brother come home to be his sister's plaything and the family maid's poppet. In this role, Diana Coupland gives a magisterial performance. Scared of the new-fangled telephone, she can still put any family member in their place.

Dale Rapley as Charles, Stella's actor husband who breezes into the household, is spot-on in his cheery contrast to the Kirbys. Their household, in Robin Don's traverse setting of simple furniture browned-out between two solid-looking walls that hang free of the floor, is dependable yet fragile. Ian Brown's production crowns the West Yorkshire Playhouse's Priestley season and is a fine revival by any standard.

Wilfred Kirby: Ken Bradshaw
Sarah: Diana Coupland
Lilian Kirby: Dorothy Atkinson
Dr Kirby: Ian Lindsay
Stella Kirby: Samantha Robson
Geoffrey Farrant: Nigel Betts
Charles Appleby: Dale Rapley

Director: Ian Brown
Designer: Robin Don
Lighting: Kevin Sleep
Sound: Mic Pool

2001-11-21 01:04:39