HOW LOVE IS SPELT. To 23 October.
London
HOW LOVE IS SPELT
by Chloe Moss
Bush Theatre To 23 October 2004
Mon-Sat 8pm
Runs 2hr 10min One interval
TICKETS: 020 7610 4224
www.bushtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 6 October
Variations working towards a theme, with some fine, tonally varied scenes.Never mind how you spell the word, how is love experienced? What, in the name of truth, is love? Chloe Moss homes in on its identity throughout her 5-duologue play, focusing on young Peta, away from Liverpool in a friend's South London bedsit.
At first, Peta even has to explain how her name, with its male sound, is spelled. Sitting silently, hugging her long shirt gradually down her legs, she gives little away to likely lad Joe. Shallow and cheery, he sees himself halfway to a stable relationship when he finds himself next morning with the same woman as the night before. But his assumptions lead him astray, blundering insensitively and trying to joke his way out of embarrassment. This is no way to spell out love.
The male photo on her dressing-table, her stated fear of the dark details emerge slowly through Peta's few words. But, scene-by-scene, the empty spaces in her experience become filled in. Starting with history teacher Steve, nervously cautious as only a stage teacher can be. This is the only place Julie Ann Robinson's scrupulous production puts its own foot wrong, letting Kim Lyon's otherwise taut, contained Peta vamp around the bed dominating her room like a rapid-fire Lolita.
A shame, because the next two scenes really bring variety and context. First there's quick-talking, low-esteem Chantelle, then from a floor below and a generation up, neighbour Marion. Joanne Pearce is outstanding as a woman dragging her voice, her feet and her mind through life. Able to care on auto-pilot she could be an older Chantelle; in their different ways all these people floating through Peta's nights (even chipper Joe) have little sense of their own worth.
She remains something of a Black Hole character, defined by reserve, silence and reaction to others. Resolving mysteries is always harder than setting them up, and even Lyon's sustained characterisation can't disguise a sense of the over-explicit and rush to explain in the final, weakest scene. But there's more than enough along the way to intrigue and justify this study of vulnerability and survival, especially with this set of finely-judged performances.
Peta: Kay Lyon
Joe: Joe Armstrong
Steven: Roger Evans
Chantelle: Petra Letang
Marion: Joanne Pearce
Colin: Colin Tierney
Director: Julie Anne Robinson
Designer: Nathalie Gibbs
Lighting: Johanna Town
Sound: Mike Walker
Voice coach: Majella Hurley
Fight director: Richard Ryan
2004-10-08 23:30:41