GREENWASH. To 21 March.
Richmond.
GREENWASH
by David Lewis.
Orange Tree Theatre To 21 March 2009.
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Sat 3pm & 26 Feb, 5 March 2.30pm (+ post-show discussion).
Audio-described 10 March, 14 March 3pm.
Runs 2hr 40min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 8940 3633.
www.orangetreetheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 19 February.
Well-played comedy could do with more character focus.
As a satire on the role of public relations in (specifically pre-Obama American) politics David Lewis’s new play provides character, comedy, satire, farce, plus a late spurt of sex, though not necessarily in that order. It makes points and provides well-contrived laughs. But there’s a lack of strongly-focused characters, while events often seem placed to indulge the playwright’s humour.
Several characters clash at the Intervention designed to help alcoholic, going-off-the-rails politician Charlie. He arrives (don’t ask) kitted-out as a clown - several characters become sartorially disturbed during the evening. There’s a custard-pie moment (one moment, twice), fun with a wig; also with oil and gasoline, one poured to trouble waters, the other mistaken for water. And with a foul-mouthed doll and toy bear.
It would take someone approaching a Shakespeare to make all this cohere, especially when the central love-motivation is talked about rather than shown. Carolyn Backhouse’s graceful Grace walks through the night apparently unaware of PR-guru Alan’s designs on her. Even her ecological beliefs are mostly talked about by others; the point seems to be that people impose their ideals on someone they find so attractive.
Yet Lewis makes an ironical point in showing the outsider to this group, there simply to facilitate the slowly-vanishing Intervention, as the one harmed by PR in the wider world. And the play’s most forcefully satirical scene mimics the process of the politician fronting the lines prompted by the backroom adman.
Still, Sam Walters, having decided the play’s stageworthy, gives it the seriousness of manner in the playing and effusiveness of staging the comedy requires. Jonathan Guy Lewis’s PR man can look bewildered, fraught at the events happening in his apartment, while acquiring a moral vehemence when pointing out how those who despise his trade use, and need it. Richard Attlee and Miranda Foster give reality to their married couple, lives wasted in self-consciousness and self-disgust, while Amanda Royle, as the politician’s wife and high-ranking oil executive is convincing grit in the liberal-consensus soup It’s just that the piece adds up to something less than the sum of its often amusing parts.
Wanda: Joy Richardson.
Alan: Jonathan Guy Lewis.
Grace: Carolyn Backhouse.
Michael: Richard Attlee.
Lauren: Miranda Foster.
Nancy: Amanda Royle.
Charlie Stephen Beckett.
Director: Sam Walters.
Designer: Sam Dowson.
Lighting: John Harris.
Voice coach: Stephen Kemble.
Assistant director: Andy Brunskill.
2009-02-23 04:06:53