IF THERE IS I HAVEN'T FOUND IT YET To 21 November.
London.
IF THERE IS I HAVEN’T FOUND IT YET
by Nick Payne.
Bush Theatre Shepherds Bush Green W12 8QD To 21 November 2009.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 2.30pm.
Audio-described 27 Oct.
Captioned 28 Oct.
TICKETS: 020 8743 5050.
www.bushtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 22 October.
Waving and drowning in family life.
Theatre leaves functioning families alone, concerning itself with various forms of the dysfunctional. But the nuclear foursome in Nick Payne’s new play lie somewhere in-between. Environment academic dad is forever slightly removed from reality, while teacher mum’s practical but hasn’t necessarily done best by bullied overweight teen-daughter Anna in moving her to the school where she works.
Wildest card of all is Terry, an adult who sees himself as the teenager’s natural ally, ineptly so till he flies away again. Everyone lives their own life in this intelligent household where nothing’s common, even sense, and food ranges from a packet of crisps hidden behind a cushion to awkward meals out.
Lives are splintered, existing in unsteady cohesion, and so does the house: bed, living-room, kitchen, bathroom are represented by an item of furniture apiece, but have no co-ordination with each other. Surrounding the lot is the abstraction of a fleecy-clouded, sky-blue life in Lucy Osborne’s set which aptly crushes George’s opening lecture into a tight corner.
It matches Josie Rourke’s production, where Fiona’s bustling – Pandora Colin’s the only character to move with any sense of purpose - contrasts Anna doggedly carrying on amid the men’s airiness, registering their words in flickers of tolerance or disbelief across Ailish O’Connor’s face. Among the men speech keeps trailing-off into the air, in ideas that have no concrete conclusion, often accompanied by a blithe belief that following whatever they might be about to say (whether or not it gets said) would make all well.
Michael Begley’s distracted academic, writing a book about saving the planet, is unable to save anything – assuming he even notices it – back home. And Rafe Spall speaks Terry’s sentences brilliantly, as they jerk repetitively to nowhere in particular, like a car with an engine that never quite ignites or finds the right gear.
Yet the production style gives limited room to manoeuvre, leading to diminishing returns as the pattern remains the same, while the speechifying tends to sideline taciturn Anna’s dilemma. But if the evening doesn’t go anywhere especially original, its method of getting there is unique, and comically so.
George: Michael Begley.
Fiona: Pandora Colin.
Anna: Ailish O’Connor.
Terry: Rafe Spall.
Director: Josie Rourke.
Designer: Lucy Osborne.
Lighting: Oliver Fenwick.
Sound: Emma Laxton.
Assistant director: Ant Stones.
2009-10-27 13:20:10