IN CELEBRATION. To 15 September.

London

IN CELEBRATION
by David Storey

Duke of York’s Theatre To 15 September 2007
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Tue & Sat 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 40min One interval

TICKETS: 0870 060 6623
www.incelebration.co.uk (£3 transaction charge by ‘phone & online)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 18 July

Family play revived with the force of classic tragedy.
When David Storey’s play first appeared at the Royal Court in 1969, its three sons returning to Yorkshire for their parents’ 40th wedding anniversary chimed in with a generation of young working-class adults (dad’s a miner, coughing repeatedly from coal-dust) propelled into the middle-class by university education.

But these sons are well into their thirties; they preceded the higher-education explosion. And their trajectories have all been troubled. They return with a mix of anger, grief and denial, for this play is about more than social mobility.

Their brief visit makes clear the parents have emotionally crippled their offspring. Only dissentient Andrew brings this out; Steven nurses his misery, Colin seeks a gloss of conformist content with his car and career sorting out others’ problems.

In each act, Storey moves from the surface cheer of neighbours who pop in at the start through a journey into dark emotions, exposing the raw hurts as the night wears on. It’s the material of tragedy, but he avoids any final catharsis as a new day brings apparent normality.

Andrew departs in silence just when a cumulative speech might have been expected. And things finish silently as the parents proceed with the day, each going to a separate part of the house.

We’re even kept at arms-length by the parents’ formal cast-list titles. But Dearbhla Molloy makes all clear. Happy with externals like her new hat, she keeps emotional distant from others, even her smile being forced and sour. The cost of this existence emerges in her final, body-twisting silent scream, a kind of anti-soliloquy.

This key moment digs out the reality under surface landscapes. Its power is testament to Molloy’s coherent performance and to Anna Mackmin’s production. At first words seemed to flow too easily between father and first son home Steven. Very occasionally Paul Hilton's Andrew seems technically stretched in expressing key emotional points. But it’s a strong performance overall, with the right urgency and borderline despair.

With strong acting elsewhere, Lynda Baron and Ciaran McIntyre’s neighbours rightly on a lighter level than the Shaws', this is a West End revival to celebrate.

Steven: Orlando Bloom
Mr Shaw: Tim Healy
Mrs Burnett: Lynda Baron
Mrs Shaw: Dearbhla Molloy
Andrew: Paul Hilton
Colin: Gareth Farr
Reardon: Ciaran McIntyre

Director: Anna Mackmin
Designer: Lez Brotherston
Lighting: Mark Henderson
Sound: John Leonard
Music: Stephen Warbeck

2007-07-22 01:11:23