ENJOY, touring and then London
ENJOY: Alan Bennett.
Birmingham Rep (and Touring, then into London).
Runs: 2h 40m, one interval.
Review: Rod Dungate, Birmingham Rep 10 November 2008.
A revival well worth seeing – funny, chillingly so.
Alan Bennett’s ENJOY is far from creating the easy (though never innocent) laughter of his earlier plays; one of the reasons for its spectacular and unexpected failure in 1980. As a play, it’s awkward, quirky, dark, hilarious, depressing, and absolutely bloody-minded, which doesn’t make life easy. Another problem is that, while Bennett was deliberately moving away from his previous comedic style, he hasn’t (hadn’t) at that time quite developed a coherent new style – this play is farcical, absurdist, expressionist moment by moment, and the final minute or so needs some serious sorting out.
But I truly say, with my hand on my heart: Here’s a revival well worth the reviving.
Set in the Leeds back-to-backs Bennett knew so well from his childhood, the Cravens are waiting to be rehoused. The old houses are being demolished; their places taken by speeding motorcars and the people uplifted into high-rise flats. This is a story older city-dwellers know all too well and all city-dwellers live among as authorities spend millions trying to rebuild communities now and deal with the civil unhappiness that resulted from these inhuman upheavals.
However, Bennett brings to this setting a delicious central irony. While the ‘corporation’ is intent on destroying the back-to-back communities it’s also engaged in a project to record the communities, by sending in non-speaking observers to watch and note. The notion is chillingly and absurdly realistic. And the final, triumphant solution, just chilling.
Alison Steadman plays Connie Craven, an older woman in the early stages of Alzheimer’s; it’s a complete triumph of a performance. Accurate, detailed, dotty – Steadman is nowhere to be seen, Mrs Craven leaves her mark everywhere. Wilfred Craven is created by David Troughton; Troughton creates a bully of a character yet gives him humanity too – Craven is a bully because that’s all Craven knows to be.
Carol Macready’s single appearance as the neighbour Mrs Clegg is a show-stopper. Bennett has written for Mrs Craven and Mrs Clegg a gem of a scene – the two women work brilliantly together to squeeze every last ounce of humour from it.
Wilfred Craven: David Troughton.
Connie Craven: Alison Steadman.
Ms Craig: Richard Glaves.
Linda Craven: Josie Walker.
Heritage: Mark Killeen.
Anthony: Peter McGovern.
Gregory: Julian Pindar.
Mrs Clegg: Carol Macready.
Adrian: John Gould.
Sid: Chris McCalphy.
Harman: Jake Ferretti.
Charles: James Parkes.
Rowland: David Bell.
Director: Christopher Luscombe.
Designer: Janet Bird.
Lighting Designer: Paul Pyant.
Sound Designer: Jason Barnes.
Musical Director: Michael Haslam.
Choreographer: Jenny Arnold.
Fight Director: Malcolm Ransom.
Dialect Coach: Martin McKellan.
Assistant Director: Sarah Norman.
Casting Director: Shirley Teece.
2008-11-11 17:23:58