JUDITH BLOOM. To 10 July.

London

JUDITH BLOOM
by Peter Elkins

Southwark Playhouse To 10 July 2004
Mon-Sat 7.30pm
Runs 1hr 35min No interval

TICKETS: 020 7620 3494
boxoffice@southwarkplayhouse.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden

The inexpressible expressed in a concentrated, fragmented action.Peter Elkins' play rightly puts Judith in the title. Her character blows the relationship shown here in its various directions; for a long time, that character's as elusive to Judith herself as to her partner Dan.

Third of three plays presented this year by Frontline theatre company around London's Fringe, Judith Bloom builds, through wisps and suggestions, a portrait of someone only gradually assembling her own sense of self.

She's first seen wine-waitressing at a photo-exhibition's opening view, a temporary job in a seemingly glitzy, fleeting lifestyle. Despite advertising man Dan's attempts to get close to her, she remains separate, never more so than when they move in together and he merges in her dream with a violent former lover.

Judith's elegantly purposeless manner grows from her early teen years, when parents split up and Dad turned to drink. Young Judith gave up ballet; like Dad, who's now dried-out, dance comes back into her life as she settles in to her steady (or steadier) relationship with Dan.

She blooms literally, arranging flowers for their flat. But her reconnection with the self from which she'd disengaged years ago eats up Dan and their relationship. Judith's repeatedly looking to the distance, saying she wants to be at an undefined there. When she finally arrives, it's at the cost of the pair's here and now.

Natalie Dakin hides behind a bright, anonymous smile and dry voice, only rarely showing someone inside to be hurt; the slightness of exposure is part of Elkins' method. Marcus Hamer contrasts Dakin well, energy of eyes, stance and mental purpose wilting as hers eventually bloom. It's almost a transference, summarised in the moment when (significantly, alone) she suddenly begins celebrating her balletic skill.

The restrained, minimal style of Rebecca Manson Jones' production tests concentration, but it's apt for Elkins' deliberately fragmented structure of short scenes, which structurally expresses Judith's state: desirable yet unknowing, and so unknowable. Such a style almost inevitably leaves a call for more detail within the limited range of expression, but there's enough offered to give this intriguing relationship a clear and quietly fiery trajectory.

Dan: Marcus Hamer
Jude: Natalie Dakin

Director: Rebecca Manson Jones
Designer: Jens Demant Cole
Lighting: Neill Brinkworth
Sound: Jack C Arnold

2004-07-01 09:24:28