HOME. To 27 November.

Tour

HOME
by David Storey

Oxford Stage Company Tour to 27 November 2004
Runs 1hr 50min One interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 4 November at Warwick Arts Centre

Fine revival of an intriguing, rewarding play.David Storey's 1970 play is probably his most elusive slice of life. The location of the slight external action only gradually becomes clear, eventually bringing the title's full implications. The play's true journey is less through the inconsequential events than into the characters' minds. In the closing moments especially, we are near to Waiting for Godot territory, though the focus in the final, still images is more on individual lives than the naked human condition.

The play's date is important, for the two elderly men who occupy the first scene recall times around the 1939-1945 war. And a kind of middle-class gentility that's very much of their age; their manner and self-images are precisely right for that generation. The actors are beautifully contrasted, physically and temperamentally David Calder's rotund, cautious Harry ironically the one who had ambitions to be a dancer, Christopher Godwin's tall, thin Jack more vocal and sharp-mannered.

They're finely complemented in turn by the women whose arrival refocuses ideas about the setting (Anthony Lamble's lawn setting offers no clues). These two are not young, but are certainly younger and the opposite of the genteel males. Casting Geraldine James as Kathleen is like having the Head Girl play the school slut, but she transforms herself into a physically and mentally ill-organised person, unthinkingly parting legs and rushing her skirt upwards to the rebukes of her friend Marjorie.

Sandra Voe, a protean performer, fully inhabits any part she plays. Her Marjorie is a person with sudden perceptions and direct questions or comments mixed with a mind that's less one-track than single siding, shunting every possible remark others make up a cul-de-sac of innuendo.

Add David Hinton's pathetic Alfred, all muscles and no thoughts outside routine and there's a fine portrait gallery. In 1970 there was also a broader picture of an England stuck in delusions from its past and ideals of behaviour that ignored realities, but the individuals remain strong in Sean Holmes' generally fine production. At moments it can lack the last degree of concentration but it allows the strong performances to impress throughout Storey's slow revelation.

Harry: David Calder
Jack: Christopher Godwin
Marjorie: Sandra Voe
Kathleen: Geraldine James
Alfred: David Hinton

Director: Sean Holmes
Designer: Anthony Lamble
Lighting: Simon Bennison
Sound: Fergus O' Hare

2004-11-07 09:37:11