FROM BOTH HIPS. To 18 August.
London
FROM BOTH HIPS
by Mark O’Rowe
Old Red Lion Theatre 418 St John Street EC1V 4NJ To 18 August 2007
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Sun 6pm
Runs 2hr 5min One interval
TICKETS: 020 7837 7816
www.oldredliontheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 4 August
A play that knows where it’s going and has its own way of getting there.
There’s been a gunshot before Mark O’Rowe’s play begins, and it looks as if there’ll be another as it finishes. Unsurprisingly, the firing involves the two men, policeman Willy and innocent bystander (though he was running at the time) Paul. The play’s about the guilt, anger and treachery lying between them and the women who outnumber them two-to-one.
Male pride’s at issue. Willy’s scared Paul will expose his shaming secret, while Paul’s angry, taunting references to the journalist he plans to give his story to contrast his own philandering.
O’Rowe gradually unfolds the context that explains events, as he does so building a picture of the demands involved in close relationships; aptly, the play starts with a newspaper article saying dogs never really feel affection.
Talking to each other is difficult in this play. Professors keep sticking their oars in via newspaper articles, there are sudden offstage appearances at front-doors, and several key confrontations take place against cries from offstage: Paul’s tirade against Willy is underscored, and almost drowned-out, by women in the next room furious at Paul’s infidelity. And O’Rowe makes Ayckbourn-like use of ‘phone-calls, each successive first-act scene giving a context to the unheard side of a call from the previous scene.
No wonder Willy’s wife Irene is distraught, Paul’s wife Adele, despite putting on a show for his return from hospital, is mentally stressed while love-seeking Theresa faces rejection and anger. Liz, as a mere friend, keeps closest to staying in control.
Newly-formed C Company have done London a favour by bringing this witty yet serious play to Islington’s Old Red Lion. Its shape and manner of revealing information underline the sense of problematic relationships, helping it say so much at such a brisk pace.
Performances in Aileen Gonsalves’ aptly hectic yet considered production are technically fine, though the young cast cannot bring a full context to their characters – they don’t look like people who’ve lived through the experiences. Yet there are convincing touches, such as the sudden distracted moments of Helen Heaslip’s Adele. And they’re certainly good enough to make this fine play worth seeing here.
Liz: Susan Bracken
Adele: Helen Heaslip
Paul: Rowan Finnegan
Theresa: Rebecca Clarke
Willy: Nick Danan
Irene: Emma Powell
Director: Aileen Gonsalves
Designer: Mark Simmonds
Lighting: Charlie Lucas
Music: Jamie Norton
Dialect coach: Kay Flanagan
2007-08-06 15:06:03