FORGOTTEN THINGS. To 2 December.

Tour.

FORGOTTEN THINGS
by Emma Adams.

Red Ladder Theatre Tour to 2 December 2008.
Runs 1hr 25min No interval + post-show discussion.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 28 November at Old Town Hall Arts Centre Hemel Hempstead.

Scores on instant appeal rather than dramatic development.
Red Ladder, 40 this year, currently focuses on taking theatre to young people in schools and youth centres, besides playing arts venues such as the ones on the final stages of their first tour of Emma Adams’ play. That means widely differing audiences, with a vast range of mindscapes and cultural reference points, from RSC to DVD, to bring to a performance.

So opinions will vary, but Rod Dixon’s production is undeniably theatrical. And it’s made more so by designer Sara Perks (one of several fine women designers whose work has enhanced northern stages in recent years). This is despite the cinematic black and white style (or rather black and grey), and a cinematic approach to entrances and exits, as hands, heads or bodies emerge or disappear through floor and walls.

It creates a fluid action as husband and wife Philip and Margot hurry off to a psychologist with common mid-life cares and woes, while suicidal teenage son Toby is left to look after mind-slipping granny Lily. Both go through tortuous therapy, Toby’s being self-driven as he uses drawings on a wall to connect with the grandmother who fitfully remembers him.

Along with portrayal of tensions between, and unhappiness within, people there are stereotypes; a daubed swastika stands for a German while the piece does nothing for psychiatrists, Dr Kevin being a huge cartoonish puppet head and torso looming threateningly or leeringly over patients.

And for all the invention, as characters emerge through, or disappear into, elasticated holes in a solid-seeming set, or scurry with stylised speed, 95 minutes is a long time to be kept at arms’-length from these white-face, 2D-voiced figures.

For writer Emma Adams doesn’t offer enough material or dramatic development, repeating points as her stereotypes pass through the play. Grey as the show’s staging, the characters soon become predictable, limiting the impact of Adams’ undoubted theatricality. At present, any 15 minutes of Forgotten Things is pleasantly inventive; together it palls. But, it’s a play with many audiences, and no easy ending, and where the issues grip or the style surprises, it may hold the attention throughout.

Toby/Dr Kevin: Woody Murray.
Lilly: Lucy Hind.
Philip: Steve Mosley.
Margot: Ella Harris.

Director: Rod Dixon.
Designer: Sara Perks.
Lighting: Tim Skelly.
Composer: Jaydev Mistry.
Puppet Maker: John Barber.
Assistant designer: Charlotte Stanley.

2008-11-29 11:51:54