HOUSE OF AGNES. To 29 March.
London.
HOUSE OF AGNES
by Levi David Addai.
Oval House Kennington Oval SE11 To 29 March 2008.
Tue-Sat 7.45pm Mat 15, 29 March 4pm.
Runs 1hr 35in No interval.
TICKETS: 020 7582 7680.
www.ovalhouse.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 8 March.
Emotional trauma on the shag pile drama.
I thought only sport got theatre audiences going. But Paines Plough’s Oval House premiere of Levi David Addai’s new play shows home truths can have the same impact. Laughs, cheers, and shock played audibly alongside key moments in the story of Agnes, preparing to retire to Ghana, warding off an unsuitable prospective wife for feckless son Solomon and leaving her house to responsible younger son Caleb.
This is an inside-out, onion-layer play. Events reveal the truth beneath appearances, often leaving things opposite to how they’d appeared. Meanwhile, it tells its story from beginning to an end that follows several bitter situations. Addai mixes comedy with the serious; whatever happens, Agnes lets no-one tread outdoor shoes on the strip of white carpet running across the stage in Hannah Clark’s economical yet characterful traverse design. So heartfelt arguments take place with people standing carefully aside, or moving on and off the valued pile.
George Perrin’s production identifies the mood contrasts within or outside the house, finding laugh-aloud humour and truth. Sometimes, Addai stretches comedy; or he asks us to accept big emotional jumps that suggest deliberate attempts to mislead – as with the swing in Davina’s attitude towards Solomon. But these are small points within a consistently involving story that amuses and moves, often simultaneously.
The formidable Agnes is finally undermined just as she appears resplendent in traditional Ghanaian dress. Her utter order in her house (ie home) contrasts the disorder in her house (ie family) as Caleb and Solomon fight and argue, and as more’s revealed about Solomon’s confused attempts to make his way and Caleb’s keenness to assimilate into White respectability.
Cecilia Noble’s magnificent Agnes registers the eventual challenges to her certainty in eyes and lips, while Anwar Lynch and Ludvig Bonin catch the brothers’ playful and serious sibling warfare. As their girlfriends, there’s a telling contrast between Sheri-An’s Davina, in it for the emotional long-haul, and Catherine Bailey’s Michaela, always in the suit that defines her hierarchical work relation with Caleb.
Good work too from Adam Deacon as Solomon’s sometimes exasperated friend, in a happy night at the Oval House.
Agnes Ofari: Cecilia Noble.
Caleb Mensah: Anwar Lynch.
Solomon Mensah: Ludvig Bonin.
Davina Marshall: Sheri-An Davis.
Mehmet Sas: Adam Deacon.
Michaela Boyd: Catherine Bailey.
Director: George Perrin.
Designer: Hannah Clark.
Lighting: Chahine Yavroyan.
2008-03-09 10:49:54