FORWARD: till 28 February
FORWARD: Robert Warrington
Birmingham Rep (The Door) Tkts: 0121 236 4455
Runs: 2h 05m, one interval, till 28 February.
Review: Rod Dungate 9 February 2004
Tough, witty, a play with attitude.
Robert Warrington's title FORWARD would serve as a neat metaphor for any play about a dysfunctional family muddling its way along. But in Birmingham (which is where it was written and is set) the metaphor is not only apt but multi-layered. FORWARD is (was?) the name of a Raymond Mason sculpture set in Centenary Square not 30m away from Birmingham Rep; and it was burnt down by youngsters last year. Clever title.
Warrington's play is tough, wry and witty in execution, with some sharply observed one-liners. 'Life's the survival of the shittiest' says 16 year-old Susan to her sex-starved uncle.
Susan lives with her bailiff father, Tony, and mother, Nola, but seems to have attracted the eye of Uncle Dave. She, however, is attracted to her other uncle, teacher Mike. Her brother, Kieran, a would-be rapper, is trying to come out to racist, homophobic, father Tony while he is succumbing to the homophobic oppression of the rapping fraternity.
Most of Warrington's robust humour stems from his broad characterisations particularly from the two wives Nola and Roxy. The two women hilariously achieve balance between 3D and stereotype: it's more successfully achieved by them than the men early in the play, the writing has greater sympathy for them.
Susan is a more fully filled out character. Catherine Skinner enables Susan to both bridge the gap into and guide us through this family marshland. She cleverly merges the objectiveness of the sharp observer with the growing pain of the sexual adolescent missing the support, understanding and love she needs. Her easy manner underpins a survivor who looks as if she's walked straight in from Centenary Square outside.
Susan's father Tony (Ged McKenna) is a brutal man struggling in a changing world (often driven by the best of motives). And he's not all bad: in a lovely moment, sensitively played by McKenna, he goes as far down the emotional road as his own brutalised psyche will allow him; he says to his now-out son (whom he simply cannot understand) 'There's always a bed here for you.' Life is not easy nor simple even for the big bully.
Dysfunctional families are great entertainment as a host of American films and TV series show us. Warrington, though, fills this play with a bit too much dysfunction and it begins to creak under the strain. Nola's second half revelation about her daughter (Susan) and the opening up of an incest-or-not theme piles on the agony too much. There is neither space nor time to deal with this credibly and the revelation becomes a device leading nowhere.
Susan: Catherine Skinner
Kieran: Joseph Raishbrook
Tony: Ged McKenna
Nola: Angela Bain
Dave: Robin Pirongs
Roxy: Joanne Moseley
Mike: Robert Harrison
Director: Natalie Wilson
Design: Emma Donovan
Lighting: James Farncombe
Dialect Coach: Mary Howland
2004-02-10 20:27:53