INCOMPLETE AND RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS. To 28 May.

London

INCOMPLETE AND RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS
by David Eldridge

Royal Court (Jerwood Theatre Upstairs) To 28 May 2005
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Sat 4pm
Runs 1hr 40min No interval

TICKETS: 020 7565 5000
www.royalcourttheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 May 2005

A sensibility not making sense of the sensible world around.Joey's story seems something like this: his mother dies, his violent, reactionary taxi-driving father Ronnie lives with Maureen, the nurse who attended her. Joey takes against Maureen. His childhood friend, whom he sometimes meets for a laugh, is succeeding in the city. The friendship doesn't run deep. Ronnie seems more able to relate to Maureen than Joey can with his girlfriend Kate.

Joey comes closest to a sense of self in his one-to-one literacy work with a Black lad Trevor, who is totally non-violent but bullied. Joey's advice to defend himself probably leads to Trevor's death. The boy's mother Tanika only knows Joey helped her son to read and is grateful amid her deep grief, but Joey misinterprets this and makes an inappropriate physical advance.

This seems the story because it's pieced together from a time-jerking whirlpool of action, set on Anthony Lamble's anonymous, scoured set. At the start Joey wanders on casually; characters pass by as if he's lost in the crowd of them. A fragment of potential communication with his father begins and ends the play. Characters observe Joey from chairs in shadow at the sides or disappear for a time. Joey's is a mind in chaos.

If the recurring characters float in and out as time snakes round in Joey's mind, ironically a sense of linear progress is given by Howard Ward's cameo clerics. At first a vicar is a source of joint fun to Joey and Colin; later his rudeness to a bishop dishes Joey's relationship with Kate; only shared jokes with Clive, a reverend of world-wide experience, bring a sense of stability.

Shaun Dingwall's wide-eyed Joey moves suddenly in and out of involvement with others, suggesting a loose grip on events. Elements of hope remain; he might succeed in educating another disaffected youth, Tony. And finally, having walked into this maelstrom unawares, he leaves; his last words are I'm going now. For a future or for nothing is tantalisingly unclear.

Incompleteness and randomness are the opposite of Sean Holmes' precision-point, finely acted production, though the sense of dreamlike vividness and lack of control is ever-present.

Joey: Shaun Dingwall
Ronnie: Tom Georgeson
Colin: Keir Charles
Maureen: Marion Bailey
Trevor/Tony: Heshima Thompson
A Priest/Father David/Reverend Dunn/A Bishop/Clive: Howard Ward
Kate: Kellie Bright
Shanika: Tanya Moodie

Director: Sean Holmes
Designer: Anthony Lamble
Lighting: Paul Anderson
Sound: Emma Laxton
Company voice work: Patsy Rodenburg
Fight director: Terry King

2005-05-17 14:49:08