FLAMINGOLAND. To 16 August.
Newcastle-under-Lyme.
FLAMINGOLAND
by Deborah McAndrew.
New Vic Theatre To 16 August 2008.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 16 Aug 2.30pm no performance 30 July, 6, 11 Aug.
Audio-described 13 Aug.
Captioned 12 Aug.
Post-show discussion 12 Aug.
Runs 2hr 20min One interval.
TICKETS: 01782 717962.
www.newvictheatre.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 25 July.
Drama strong on family relationships and the past’s impact on the present.
Though it’s set in the present, Deborah McAndrew’s new play reaches back 40 years, unearthing a family secret that’s impacted on the lives of sisters Mari and Bridie, as well as adult daughters Sadie and Kath. The secret’s one that’s often been handled in plays before. Yet it’s worth revisiting, to show that the swinging sixties, even late in their progressive run, had a pendulum often mired in traditional expectations, and Catholicism in the case of these sisters’ northern home.
Flamingoland also gives new light to the family tensions that became popular in theatre during the shifting sands of sixties society, by focusing on female relationships: sisters, and mothers and daughters. The only man here, a chirpy young environmental health officer clearing squirrels from Mari’s roof, is free of family tensions, and the play shows skeletons coming from closets are harder to kill than squirrels, which are heard being shot as counterpoint to a key part of the action.
All this makes for interesting material but it wouldn’t go far without McAndrew’s dramatic instinct. She knows how to use suggestion to intrigue an audience and create closeness with a character, then sympathy when the truth, sometimes casually, emerges. The humour is never a writer being clever, always arising from the characters – Tricia Kelly’s Mari has a fine line in put-downs and acerbic comment, something this performer always does well.
Only the last of the four substantial scenes shows a drop in tension. It becomes more reflective, longer speeches looking backward rather than action moving relationships forward. Yet this is understandable in a play which it is soon apparent is built around one of its character’s dying weeks. And, as long-lying repressions rooted in secrets and lies are exposed, there’s hope for the younger women to move on in life.
Lis Evans’ platform set, gradually denuded, gives increasing prominence to picnic chairs bought for a long-ago family trip to Flamingoland, now brought from storage as life’s proving far from a theme park’s pink pleasure-grounds. Gwenda Hughes’ seamless, strongly acted production rightly allows this play to be star of its own show.
Dave: Paul Barnhill.
Bridie: Tina Gray.
Sadie: Becky Hindley.
Mari: Tricia Kelly.
Kathleen: Nicola Sanderson.
Director: Gwenda Hughes.
Designer: Lis Evans.
Lighting: Daniella Beattie, Peter Morgan.
Sound: James Earls-Davis.
Voice coach: Mark Langley.
2008-07-28 14:07:20