FUTURE ME. To 26 April.
London.
FUTURE ME
by Stephen Brown.
Only Connect 32 Cubitt Street WC1X 0LR To 26 April 2009.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 16, 25 April 3pm Sun 26 April 5pm.
no performance 15, 20 April.
Runs 2hr 20min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 7609 1800.
www.pleasance.co.uk/www.onlyconnectuk.org
Review: Timothy Ramsden 6 April.
Skilfully tackling the taboo.
This converted chapel near Gray’s Inn Road provides a more sympathetic space, if not acoustic, for Stephen Brown’s play than did the smaller Theatre 503 for Future Me’s 2007 premiere. Almost entirely re-cast, with new set and lighting designers, plus a sound designer, Guy Retallack’s second production and Brown’s reworked script are both improved.
With figures looming behind Perspex screens, or crowding to set the scene before leaving its characters, there’s a sense of people’s lives not being their own. That becomes true for Peter, whose legal career is blown apart when he inadvertently sends a violent image of child sex-abuse round his e-mail Address Book.
His computer-geek brother refuses to clean the hard-drive, his journalist girlfriend is appalled, in part because he didn’t immediately trust her with the secret, and it’s not long before he’s banged-up with other offenders against children. Here’s the true crucible of debate; external pressures matter, but it’s the workings of the offenders’ minds that really count.
Fellow-prisoner Tim, drawing on childhood memories, resolutely sees any objection to sex with children as a distorted society’s brainwashing. He argues that relationships can involve the strong helping the weak - which does happen in a different context as Peter tries to keep fellow-inmate Harry from relapsing.
Harry, whose vulnerability and optimism are summed-up by his efforts to conquer the basics of guitar-playing, is a personality brought to the edge of tragedy by his hopeful self-excuses, as Tom Newman shows. Apart from his weakness, he’s a well-intentioned soul.
David Benson reprises Tim, evangelist for child-sex: performance and writing both achieve the careful balance of a dangerous plausibility offset by Peter’s arguments. And Rupert Hill’s Peter makes clear that the danger of relapse is no further away than it would be for a reformed alcoholic.
Other performances are functional without creating a strong sense of character, something that’s of varying importance. But Retallack’s production shows, whether in the intensity of Hill’s concentration under pressure or through the slow-burn phrases of Leo Chadburn’s score, the quality of debate here on a subject that’s usually limited to tabloid headlines and unproductive rant.
Peter: Rupert Hill.
Jenny: Robyn Isaac.
Mike: Tom Golding.
Harry: Tom Newman.
Ellen: Katherind Dow Blyton.
Tim: David Benson.
Director: Guy Retallaxk.
Designer: Helen Goddard.
Lighting: Mark Dymock.
Sound: Matt Eaton.
Composer: Leo Chadburn.
Assistant director: Anna Ostergren.
2009-04-07 08:35:57