INSIGNIFICANCE. To 22 May.
Northampton/Brighton
INSIGNIFICANCE
by Terry Johnson
Royal Theatre To 15 May then Theatre Royal Brighton 17-22 May 2004
Tue-Sat 7.30pm (Northampton)
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Thu & Sat 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 15min One interval
TICKETS: 01604 624811
www.royalandderngate.com (Northampton)
01273 328488 (Brighton booking fee)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 6 May
Explosion of ideas in an American bedroom, produced with panache but mixed-level performances.Rupert Goold and associate director Simon Godwin have quickly established a standard so high in Northampton it invites demanding expectations. Which this revival of Terry Johnson's first major play don't quite meet.
A lot is right including the white-out programme cover and set design. In this hotel-bedroom, blandly comfortable as 1953 America could offer, there's not only the thermo-nuclear backdrop deriving from Albert Einstein (lightly veiled behind The Professor'). There's a quartet of characters as significant at least important in their day as people and paparazzi could find. Joe McCarthy (given an alcoholically bilious and sweatily desperate viciousness by Alan Perrin) was the US Senator hounding supposed Communists the play's set just before Einstein testifies to his Un-American Activities Committee.
On screen and baseball pitch Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio were respective showbiz and sports flavours of the day and soon to be briefly married - a modern celeb equivalent Beckhams. Terry Johnson's collection isn't arbitrary, as the four claims to fame slug out their miseries (only Einstein tries to bring some consolation to others, as he grieves over his earlier encouragement of the US towards nuclear weapons). The scientist was summoned before McCarthy; he did send at least a postcard to Monroe. And the Ballplayer comes crashing jealously in, pursuing a wife who's been filmed with her dress blown round her face (it happened while shooting The Seven Year Itch and led to divorce).
Some, liking it hot, might be attracted to the notion of Einstein and Monroe almost making it to bed together, but the bigger issue is what significance these lead players have, how agendas and world-views explode together and how everybody else's life can seem a dream, till you start living their nightmares. It's all relative. As is fame and reputation.
Johnson's success lies in keeping the elements whirling rather than coming to a conclusion. He relies on sound and light latterday smoke and mirrors for that. Meanwhile, things have been kept tamed by Gina Bellman's one-dimensional, breathy Monroe. There's more forceful uni-dimensionalism from Senator and Ballplayer, but Paul McCleary's Einstein scores best, suggesting wonder and bemusement at life.
The Professor: Paul McCleary
The Senator: Alan Perrin
The Actress: Gina Bellman
The Ballplayer: Steven Hartley
Director: Rupert Goold
Designer: Ruari Murchison
Lighting: Oliver Fenwick
Composer: Adam Cork
Voice coach: Julia Wilson Dickson
2004-05-11 16:53:26