GATES OF GOLD. To 18 December.

London

GATES OF GOLD
by Frank McGuinness

Finborough Theatre To 18 December 2004
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Sun 3.30pm
Runs 1hr 30min No interval

TICKETS: 020 7373 3842
www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 1 December

Flamboyance and Fidelity in the closing scene of life.It's common for plays to investigate lives from the vantage-point of death's door. In Frank McGuinness's play, well directed for Charm Offensive at the Finborough by Gavin McAlinden, the sense of lives lived together till the death-bed resides in Lucy Wade's huge portrait. It shows two younger men, one round-faced and cravatted, looking determinedly into the distance, the other sharp-featured and direct challenging the viewer.

Actor and incisive director, these two have in age become William Gaunt's dying Gabriel, in black wig and elaborate make-up chasing the illusion of youth as the last gasp approaches. And John Bennett's Conrad, concerned, his controlled surface covering anguish, still finding moments of humour as he smokes a bedside laudanum. Here is the companionship of a lifetime's marriage overlaying the desperation of a lover's loss.

Behind these names are Dublin's most openly gay couple. Actor Micheal MacLiammoir and director Hilton Edwards lived and worked together from 1927 till MacLiammoir's 1978 death, founding Dublin's Gate Theatre.

Yet neither was actually Irish, something reflected in the webs of deceit McGuinness's characters keep spinning. It's truth that's too painful to face, for all, including the young nurse brought in as Gabriel's carer. Conrad tries rejecting her, Gabriel's son accuses her of being a serial killer, while sister Cassie spins stories of life as a professional poker-player which she later denies. Following which, McGuinness shows her playing cards.

Designer Vicki Fifield turns the Finborough's intimacy into a chamber of illusion, all golden panels prefiguring the title's description of death as a threshold with paintings hung all round. Alan Turkington shows Ryan's anger, Josie Kidd brings relaxed satisfaction to Kassie, enjoying life her own way, while Aoife McMahon's Alma switches sharply between calm and fury, bringing an unknown realm of experience into this enclosed world.

But the production's triumph is the pairing of William Gaunt's florid, Gabriel with his elegantly resonant voice going with camp tinsel into the dark night of death, while that fine actor John Bennett's Conrad, devoid of theatricality, has a deep love reaching a touching apogee curled on the bed with his dying partner.

Gabriel: William Gaunt
Conrad: John Bennett
Alma: Aoife McMahon
Kassie: Josie Kidd
Ryan: Alan Turkington

Director: Gavin McAlinden
Designer: Vicki Fifield
Lighting: Paul Colwell
Music: James Jones
Costume: Alena Ondrackova
Dramaturg: Rhonwen McCormack
Assistant director: Kate Wasserberg

2004-12-02 19:08:11