GAUDEAMUS. To 15 April.
London
GAUDEAMUS
by Peter Morris
Arcola Theatre 27 Arcola Street E8 To 15 April 2006
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat Sat 3pm
Runs 2hr 20min One interval
TICKETS: 020 7503 1646
www.arcolatheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 27 March
As good a new play as you could expect to find with performances to match those any theatre could provide.
There’s a phenomenon called ‘Fringe Acting’: keen rawness rather than honed technique, the obvious over the inspired. There’s none of that here. Each of this trio is a peach of a performance in a plum of a role.
Peter Morris’s script consists of 10 long speeches expressing 3 perspectives on a New England university’s sexual experiment. There’s intellectual Black student Lynettte, who introduces a new law requiring everyone to agree to any request for sex, dumb-stud Travis who finds it opens new ground, and 68-year old classics professor Helen, quietly deliberate yet open to new ideas and experiences. Of these, naturally, the only one lacking sexual experience is from the older generation.
The form suits Morris’s material, giving sharply-etched experiences in parallel and avoiding the kind of awkward question realistic scenes would cause (did the press not catch on? what did parents say?).
Morris seems to have a liking for puns, which run through all 3 characters’ speeches, though always helping the argument forward rather than being gratuitous moments of verbal display. If the sexual descriptions described don’t retain their initial interest, that’s part of the point (and the diminishing returns of near-random sex apply even more to accounts of other people’s experiences). The play remains hugely entertaining.
Morris doesn’t focus explicitly on the totalitarian aspect of the law, or on health issues. It’s not that kind of play. He does show the way a whole university can be swayed into action by a forceful personality like Lynette, how Brad finds stimulation in unexpected encounters off his familiar sexual treadmill, and how Helen accommodates herself to the new system in her usual intellectual manner.
Michael Longhurst’s direction of this fine script is sympathetically alert, yet uncluttered. And each performance is outstanding. Travis Oliver shows the hearty confidence of someone whose appearance rather than, um, ideas, get him respect, then the dawning realisation of new experiences. Kika Markham’s bird-voiced Helen has a polite manner built over years of study, with a smile that doesn’t belie quick wits. And Chipo Chung’s superbly-acted Lynette is a model of youthful energy and dynamic self-certainty.
Lynette Baker: Chipo Chung
Brad Kelly: Travis Oliver
Helen West: Kika Markham
Director: Michael Longhurst
Designer: Patrick Burnier
Lighting: David Miller
Sound: Matt Downing
Assistant director: Alex Sutton
Associate costume: Nell Knudsen
2006-03-31 16:44:59