HABITAT. To 30 November.
Manchester
HABITAT
by Judith Thompson
Royal Exchange Studio To 30 November 2002
Mon-Fri 7.30pm Sat 8pm Mat 28 2pm & 30 5pm
Runs 2hr 25min One interval
TICKETS 0161 833 9833
www.royalexchange.co.uk
Review Timothy Ramsden 23 November
A play that knows its own complex mind and treads a familiar path in an individual way Hell's come to Toronto's leafiest suburb - a group home, settling teenagers from dysfunctional backgrounds. Thompson opens this situation into a study or betrayal, unlikely to receive a more sympathetic production than Sarah Frankcom's in the Exchange's fine studio space.
Her setting's abstract – Angela Simpson provides a circular disc, lapped largely by the wrap-round audience, backed by a screen through which characters can step. Once on stage, they sit on the periphery when not involved in the action. This allows the play's counterpointing of situations to proceed with the swiftness of film editing. And it enforces how arguments and decisions between some characters will impact on others.
Drawing together the worlds of residents and homers is 16 year old Raine, to whom Carla Henry brings a sympathetic sensitivity: in Toronto, as Hollywood, you have to love your hero. She's befriended by elderly widow Margaret, instigator of the petition to swish the children out of the area. But though she bakes the young woman cookies, Carla's too cute to fall for the bribe. She's the baby who fell from mother's breast, who had to become maternal as she watched her mother die young. And whose serenity gives way to incendiary fury.
Betrayals are rife: young Sparkle lets down the home leader by thieving; Margaret lets down her affection for Carla by sticking finally with her neighbours, in a sentence-melting confusion of mind. There's mistrust in relations with her lawyer daughter Janet, whose smiling manner lightly masks a threat: Nancy Crane beautifully captures Janet's self-deceiving assurance.
As the home's supervisor, Tom Hodgkins gives a scintillating performance, in clownish optimism, or the brow-furrowed worry over Sparkle, whose eerily perceptive crush he cannot afford to acknowledge. As the truth about Lewis surfaces, his anger and agony lash out. You wonder how he got state funding: but people like him, an unknowing mix of missionary and charlatan, do.
Thompson relies overmuch on monologues – they never become the structural device she seems to want. Occasionally, close up, 'acting' shows through the excellent performances - Hodgkins and Firbank are magnificent. But it remains a very strong show.
Cath: Donna Alexander
Raine: Carla Henry
Lewis Chance: Tom Hodgkins
Margaret Deacon: Ann Firbank
Janet Grant: Nancy Crane
Sparkle: Richard Glaves
Director: Sarah Frankcom
Designer: Angela Simpson
Lighting: Douglas Kuhrt
Sound: Gwen Thomson
Dialect coach: Lise Olson
2002-11-25 08:26:43