HOW TO TELL THE TRUTH. To 15 February.

Scarborough

HOW TO TELL THE TRUTH
by Chris Dunkley

Stephen Joseph Theatre To 15 February 2003
Mon-Sat 7.45pm
Runs 1hr 30min No interval

TICKETS 01723 370541
Review Timothy Ramsden 3 February

Exeter graduate Chris Dunkley's new play strains vigorously at the leash of its dramatic influences without breaking free.This is First Foot's second leg. Last year the Stephen Joseph gave three new plays brief runs in limited décor during the early-year off-season in the theatre's smaller, end-stage McCarthy auditorium. Two plays this year, opening on an ambitious international perspective, not quite brought into focus

It comes several years after other 'Bosnia' plays, without adding much to what's been said about the conflict, its human cost and the specious elements of war reporting. though Chris Dunkley dismisses the obvious target, hotel lounge correspondents, for the more interesting territory of frontline news agendas.

Yet, despite a serious interest in the ethics of conflict, and several strong theatrical moments, the play's images and dialogue with its implied connections, the sudden use of apparently disconnected recall suggest exercises in dramatic technique rather than directly imagined experience.

The action's certainly neatly (too neatly?) structured, using an inn as a near-haven from war, where Milos grows drunk, Shota works and shy Marco mends the drinks machine, and more helpfully gets a radio going. There are vivid ideas: war summarised in cross-fire between a husband and wife, either of whom could kill their son. And quirkily memorable ones: Shota's apparent hope of bringing peace by turning the inn to an art-gallery and her dreams of visiting Dubrovnik, a pair of dead pigs summarising death and waste.

The trick is to make such details feel real and develop them through the action. These stay as concepts; so do the characters. The central conflict between Milos and the journalist who's broken through for a story is unequal. Milos precipitates the action, while Dunkley only allows the visitor simple responses. And Milos's moral rage is dissipated in maudit moroseness and self-opinionated drunkenness.

Good performances from the men especially (D. Lydon struggles to make the thinly-drawn journo fully register, while Helen Coker's Shota is played dangerously low-key) and efficient direction of a play that brings a welcome seriousness to Scarborough's winter season.

Dunkley's undoubtedly a skilled craftsman; This play tests the water; now he needs to plunge in. Still, this is the kind of experience First Foot is about.

Milos: Damien Goodwin
Shota: Helen Coker
Marko: Philip Ralph
Journalist: D. Lydon

Director: Lu Kemp
Designer: Pip Leckenby
Lighting: Ben Vickers

2003-02-06 00:27:51