INTEMPERANCE. To 13 October.
Liverpool.
INTEMPERANCE
by Lizzie Nunnery.
Everyman Theatre To 13 October 2007.
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat 13 Oct 2pm
Runs 2hr 30min One interval.
TICKETS: 0151 709 4776.
www.everymanplayhouse.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 6 October.
Demanding, rewarding drama superbly acted and directed.
As Liverpool’s Culture-capital year approaches, Merseyside writer Lizzie Nunnery’s debut full-length play is set in 1854, when the city’s wealth was building the grand architecture which still outlines its centre.
It’s a far-and-near grandeur for characters who observe the building, with its classical statuary, rising over them as they drink, fight and work in the slum where Millie looks after her dying father, having suffered 15 years’ abuse and borne two children to a departed husband, and now finds new purpose with a Norwegian husband, and still-to-be-born third child.
Brynjar picked her, drunk, from the gutter and she’s fighting to live respectably unpicking rope for resale (it’s no money for old rope) as her children grow up bound by the slum options of alcohol and whoring.
Nunnery judges none of them. Anger and hopelessness underlie the youngsters behind whose anger Brynjar determinedly sees hope, something not easy in this Hope Street theatre’s new play, which speaks for the many excluded characters from previous, contemporary-set plays of Artistic Director Gemma Bodinetz’s regime.
Nunnery’s fine play has separated scenes that don’t always help the rhythm of the characters’ development. There are times events could continue rather than be cut-off. Still, its grip tightens. These characters, grasped firmly in a quintet of detailed and lived-in performances, are deeply memorable.
It’s a tough piece, played under the oppressive rafters of Ruari Murchison’s set, which suggests the scrubbed quality of a cholera-threatened area. Conor Linehan’s hymn-based piano music (though a note in my anorak pocket advises “Abide With Me”’s tune post-dates events here by 7 years) echoes the piano in the room, which, when knocked-over, resonates gloweringly in Fergus O’Hare’s soundscape.
Concentration’s needed. There are scenes played in darkness. Even daylight scenes seem damped, with a contrasting brightness outside a door kept open not for communal conviviality but to provide air and light in a windowless room.
Brid Brennan’s resolute Millie struggles determinedly towards respectability and a new home in Lime Street. But it’s while the family’s still sunk in their slum-court their hopeful and defiant spirits, lit by Brynjar’s northern light, shine brightly here.
Millie Sildness: Brid Brennan.
Fergal Monahan: Brendan Conroy.
Ruari McLoughlin: Matthew Dunphy.
Brynjar Sildness: Kristofer Gummerus.
Niamh McLoughlin: Emily Taaffe.
Director: Gemma Bodinetz.
Designer: Ruari Murchison.
Lighting: Paul Keogan.
Sound: Fergus O’Hare.
Composer: Conor Linehan.
Dramaturg: Suzanne Bell.
Assistant director: Lucy Kerbel.
2007-10-08 08:51:03