henhouse till 9 October
London
henhouse by Kaite O'Reilly
Presented by Glossolalia
At the Arcola Theatre, 27 Arcola Street, London, E8 2DJ
21 September - 9 October 04
Tues Sat 8pm
1½ hours with no interval
Tickets: 020 7503 1646
Review: Peter Kinsey 24 September
A new play examines an old evil in a universal and novel wayFor six years in the 1990s, Kaite O'Reilly was a volunteer for Suncokret Humanitarian Relief Aid Agency in former Yugoslavia. She witnessed the attempts of civil war victims to forge a new normality after the darkness of its horrors.
Rather than use the precise locations and people with whom she was familiar, she adopts a more universal approach and the play's power and the audience's ability to identify with its characters increase accordingly. The action takes place in a farmhouse of a subsistence-farming family. Their nationality is not specific: there is a mix of accents that will elicit different thoughts in different audiences.
The real business of the play is the emotions that engender such violent conflict, even in ordinary people who are just seeking to quietly go about their everyday existence: suffering poverty and material exploitation; a wish to pass on culture; a love of the Land.
There is nothing crass or stereotypical about O'Reilly's characters. She writes beautifully for them and they express her argument subtly. It's good to be reminded how poetic ordinary speech can be. There's Mary, a practical Mother Earth; Hugh, lazy, lover of words and Callas obsessed opera fan in the middle of all the madness; the Old Man, storyteller and folk guardian; the Young Woman, enigmatic, flirty, strong, a Mary in the making perhaps; and the Young Man, politically righteous, but traumatised by the violence he has inflicted.
Besides her universal treatment, she also uses the novelty of reverse chronology to tell the story.
It starts in the present (in the immediate aftermath of war) and ends two years earlier, so we are able to travel movingly, but unsentimentally through extremes to everyday orderliness. Again this is subtly done. There is no aping Ayckbourn here. The shifts in time are indicated not only in Bronia Houseman's design, but also in the family relationships. Indeed, sometimes, such is the enmity between them, they appear not to be related for a lot of the action: a very accurate depiction of one of the most deadening aspects of any civil war.
For some, the play may be to slow, especially at the beginning, but be patient. O'Reilly provides complete roles for five very watchable and concentrated actors, who leave you in a reflective mood long after you've left theatre.
Cast
Mary: Eileen Pollock
Hugh: Gary Lilburn
Old Man: Terry O'Brien
Young Man: Celyn Jones
Young Woman: Kate Drew
Director: Bill Hopkinson
Designer: Bronia Houseman
Lighting and Sound: Chris Barham
Production Manager: Deborah Metcalf-Askew
Maker: Sam Westbury
Producers: Bill Hopkinson, Celyn Jones
Press and Publicity: Dan Pursey
2004-09-26 09:31:00