HOME. To 1 November.
Oldham
HOME
by David Storey
Coliseum Theatre To 1 November 2003
Tue-Thu;Sat 7.30pm Fri 8pm Mat Sat 2.30pm
After-show chat: 28 October
TICKETS: 0161 624 2829
Review: Timothy Ramsden 18 October
Rare revival doesn't quite hit Home.Around 1970 David Storey's plays, directed by Lindsay Anderson, regularly made the trip from Royal Court debut to West End. Most had domestic settings and concerned family relationships. So, 1970 audiences knew what to expect from Home.
The playwright took a pleasurably long time disabusing them. Though action' isn't the first word springing to mind with a Storey drama; they unfold through gradual revelation amid everyday behaviour. Minute accuracy is vital in writing and direction. The absence of this slow-burn control of detail limits what's still a valuable chance to see the play, showing the high quality Coliseum audiences can take for granted these days.
Like former Coliseum Design head Celia Perkins' set. A corner of an elegant Georgian country house, matched by the two elderly gentleman on its trim-hedged lawn. A flag-pole in the glimpsed patio behind, above it a square of sky. What could be more normal, more England at peace?
But there's something wrong. The long windows have institutional slatted-blinds. And the proportions don't have the elegance their components suggest. The flag-pole's too near the house, the high, arched hedges would be in any other material blandly brutalist. And their neatness is disfigured, like the mown lawn's, by weeds or fungi. The fractions of this set don't add up to a whole.
And the inconsequent melancholy of the quiet opening scene's followed by the raucous talk of a couple of elderly women who seem more servant's quarters on a day off than any companions of these two men, a contrast well caught in loud, open-legged vulgarity by Alwyne Taylor and Judy Wilson. When the younger Alfred starts eloping with a chair half-hidden under his jumper, you think you know where you are. But, still, not why all these people are here.
Russell Dixon and director Robin Herford have both served time at Alan Ayckbourn's Scarborough theatre. There's a tendency to treat this as an Ayckbourn script, more quality linen than Storey's gossamer, threads held together by implication. Paul Webster's Harry catches the tone perfectly. A real character, but with nothing you could lay a finger on.
Alfred: Paul Atkins
Jack: Russell Dixon
Kathleen: Alwyne Taylor
Harry: Paul Webster
Marjorie: Judy Wilson
Director: Robin Herford
Designer: Celia Perkins
Lighting: Phil Davies
Sound: Anna Holly
2003-10-23 10:19:19