HARVEST.

London

HARVEST

Enter the Spirit Theatre Company at Southwark Playhouse 5-7 September 2002
Thu-Sat 7.30pm
Runs 50min No interval
Review Pat Friday 7 September

A devised piece on World War I that deserves a wider audience.This production – a very different experience form Oh What A Lovely War! - has emerged from a long-term project by Enter The Spirit, but is still firmly described as "work in progress". It consists of words written during the Great War (the originals can be found in The Imperial War Museum), performed, recited and read by a seven-strong company in promenade format, to create a powerful, compelling atmosphere.

An audience of 25 is admitted to a space occupied by large suspended cardboard sheets, out of which squares and rectangles of varying sizes have been cut. With simple, well-focused lighting, these spaces suggest doorways, windows, and even an avenue of trees. As the audience enters, faces appear fleetingly in these spaces.

From the outset, the feeling is that these characters are acknowledging our presence. A nurse describes the man she's tending; captains and privates bear witness to their experiences; there's a lengthy account read out of the "splendid war" and the "prunes and biscuits" which were the only rations; a love-sick young man writes to his girl – six years his senior.

When a young man flings himself to the floor as though into a shell hole inches from your feet, there's a sense of guilt that you can only watch passively. The proximity of actors and frequent use of eye-contact with the audience creates a sense of intimacy – but also of intrusion into the privacy of these lives and experiences: throughout, we watch and we are being watched.

After the show, a printed programme's handed out, telling of the characters' futures: the nurse never married, the young couple lived on into the 1980s. It's a reminder this is reality, not fiction: reality with an impact which may be problematic to maintain in a more commercially viable form. Yet it certainly deserves a wider audience.

Cast:
Lucy Briers, Richard Glaves, Candida Gubbins, Mark Leadbetter, Ben Nealon, Madeleine Solazzo, Noel White

Director: Simon Cox
Designer: Mark Anstee
Lighting: Simon Macer Wright
Sound: Mike Winship

2002-09-27 07:52:13