ETTA JENKS. To 26 February.
London
ETTA JENKS
by Marlane Gomard Meyer
Finborough Theatre To 26 February 2005
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Sun 3.30pm
Runs 1hr 40min No interval
TICKETS: 08700 600 100 (24 ht credit cards)
www.fnboroughtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 12 February
Glamour's underbelly exposed in a production lacking vocal punch.Etta junks her name, becoming Lana on arrival in California, looking for a movie career without a clue how to go about it. She walks away from the abuse wannabes are meted out by a fringe theatre director whose productions don't even pay to wander into the literal fleshpots of skinflicks.
The surprise in Marlene Gomard Meyer's play (British premiere 1990 at the Royal Court) is that Etta/Lana turns out a round peg in a round hole, moving from porn-actress via dance-partner to procuress at $100 a new female body.
It's a world summed up luridly in Ana Jebens' painted set-surround; bright sun and blue water darkened by multiple shark-fins and becoming blood-red as it laps the shore.
Jebens provides a starkness lacking in Che Walker's production for a combination of Timothy Hughes productions and the Weaver Hughes Ensemble. Projection soon bounces off the Finborough's intimacy to become bombast but almost everything spoken here is so dry and tight it loses focus and some of the play's dangerous edge.
Daniele Nardini's Etta and Clarke Peters' magna-porn man Spencer still give a sense of danger and corruption and some other performances look good, though they're vocally underplayed.
What still comes over is the freakiness of this sun-kissed society, its men physically or mentally impaired, leering and slobbering over women, unless they're the successful type in which case it's either sharp suits or the vulgarity of gold jewellery.
For women it's the minimum of fetishistic sex-wear, or Etta's mix of sex and power dressing. The point's made finally when another new arrival comes heading for the same snakepit, innocent face and bondage-gear (from her other job) combined.
Tom Sangster's James sums up the slimy side of this leachy border to Hollywood in a performance full of lies and tricky smiles, while Indra Ove's Sheri capably shows how personality, and a person, can disappear as she drops off the edge into Mexico where the real damage is done and aspirant actresses snuffed-out. Overall though, for a play filled with exploitation and death this comes over not just cool but muted.
Etta: Daniela Nardini
Clyde/Director/Dwight/Alex: Chris O' Dowd
Burt/Sherman/Max: Mido Hamada
Ben: Glenn Conroy
Dolly: Cristina Gavin
Sheri: Indra Ove
Kitty/Shelly: Siobhan Hewlett
Spencer: Clarke Peters (to 13 Feb)
Valerie/Dancers: Maggie Service/Laura Freeman
Carlos: John Hollingworth
James: Tom Sangster
Director: Che Walker
Designer: Ana Jebens
Lighting: Alex Wardle
Sounds: Matt Downing
Costume: Annie Curtis-Jones
Dialect coach: Jacquie Crago
Fight choreographer: Stephen Medlin
Assistant director: Vanessa Mobiglia
2005-02-13 12:30:55