HANNAH & HANNA bac to 17 February.

London

HANNAH & HANNA
by John Retallack

Company of Angels at bac Studio 1 To 17 February 2002
Runs 1hr 30min One interval

TICKETS 020 7223 2223
Review Timothy Ramsden 29 January

Friendship across a political divide, with both sides gaining in a wonderfully performed, tough-talking play.I thought John Retallack was optimistic when he left the established Oxford Stage Company to set up a company for older young people – the awkward early teen-age between kids' shows and mainstream fare. But he was clearly sold on the idea, as his Oxford programming demonstrated and here he is, with an active programme of plays and a social inclusion project (more info: www.companyofangels-uk.org).

It'd be easy to think his troupe's name intends to describe the two splendid performers in this play, first seen on the 2001 Edinburgh Fringe. At second sight, they, and the piece, seem even stronger. This despite some receding in the specifics of the subject. Though asylum seekers still preoccupy headlines (and Retallack, given his next, Scottish project) the Kossovo refugees have mainly returned home.

Home for Hannah is Margate, and she hates it. By the play's end, when we learn what happened to Hanna back home, we know why she thinks it's marvellous. Until the closed minds move in and want her kind out. None more than Hannah, played by Coote with aggro-faced anger till a surprising friendship with her Kossovan namesake fills her with new zest for life. Even the enmity of her once-adored, now loathed right-wing boyfriend can't curb her for long.

Meiras, darker in hair and complexion, moves from simple friendliness through the flickering facial muscles of bafflement at the hate she faces, to open delight in her new friend. Both performers have strong singing voices, and the relationship's charted in the change from Hannah's shouting the Kossovan down when she joins in the karaoke, to their fine duo-harmonies.

Both actors briefly play other parts, but the script always sees older characters from the girls' viewpoint. Emphasis is on behaviour and how events make Hannah and/or Hanna feel, rather than on reasoning and introspection – suitably so for characters, and audiences, of this age. It's fitting too that the later stages take an adventurous turn – though there's no easy ending. When Hanna, and Retallack, reveal the horrors of terrorism, both know that by now the relation with friend, and audience, is strong enough to take the truth.

Hannah: Alyson Coote
Hanna: Celia Meiras

Director: John Retallack
Designer: Phil Newman
Movement: Andy Howitt
Music: Karl James

2002-02-03 02:24:45