FABULATION. To 18 March.

London

FABULATION
by Lynn Nottage

Tricycle Theatre To 18 March 2006
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat Sat 4pm & 8 March 2pm
BSL Signed 2 March
Runs 1hr 55min One interval

TICKETS: 020 7328 1000
www.tricycle.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 22 February

Fun and wit surround a serious theme.
About 40 years ago there was an explosion in numbers going to British universities. One result was a (smaller) explosion in plays about young men going back from their sophisticated post-uni worlds to the working families that had sent them there. Often it was a guilt trip, laced with embarrassment. Something similar happens to Black New Yorker Undine, at the centre of Lynn Nottage’s very funny, yet sharply-pointed new play.

Fourteen years ago Undine recreated herself (even the name was new), disowning her family. She became a successful businesswoman, arranging celeb-strewn events, and married to a sophisticated Latino. But the husband is a twister, and her life unravels when she’s left destitute.

This takes Nottage into another familiar dramatic world; the once-confident middle-class person suddenly experiencing benefits queues, indifferent medical help for the uninsured and a police-cell when she’s apprehended by police in a situation not easy to explain away.

Adjustment and self-examination come slowly to Undine, who doesn’t take well to either. Jenny Jules occasionally seems trying a bit too hard for comic effect (from the front stalls anyway; it may be necessary emphasis for further back), but she’s a convincing Undine. Turning to the audience, she comments on what happens to her, at first with instant reactions, batting her eyelids in amazement, later more reflectively.

Her development’s shown also in her changing reactions to her pregnancy. It’s a journey made more convincing and delightful by the fine characterisations all around. The embarrassed silence and stares with which her family greet her arrival in the home she’s never condescended to visit before are hilarious, there are 2 outrageously comic street-girl caricatures in a police-cell from Clare Perkins and Sharon Duncan-Brewster (part of the joy is seeing an actor create wildly contrasting types within a few minutes of each other), plus a series of striking cameos from the ever-excellent Claire Lams.

And Kobna Holdbrook-Smith’s reformed addict, interesting himself in Undine with quiet tenacity, establishes a significant character through concentration and stillness. He’s been a star of the Tricycle’s 3-play ensemble season, now, sadly, ending with Indhu Rubasingham’s alert, detailed production.

Undine: Jenny Jules
Stephie/Rosa/Pregnant Woman/Drug Addict 2: Claire Lams
Richard/Officer/Drug Addict 1/Doctor 2: Nathan Osgood
Agent Duva/Flow/Drug Dealer: Don Gilet
Herve/Guy: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
Allison/Inmate 2/Devora: Sharon Duncan-Brewster
Mother/Caseworker/Inmate 1: Clare Perkins
Father/Drug Counsellor/Babalawo/Guard: Lucian Msamati
Granny/Dr Khadair/Woman in line: Carmen Munroe

Director: Indhu Rubasingham
Designer: Robert Jones
Lighting: Jon Driscoll
Sound: Colin Pink
Composer: Paul Englishby
Choreographer: Lynne Page
Voice coach: Neil Swain

2006-02-23 01:20:28