KICK FOR TOUCH & CLARA. To 24 June.
Richmond
KICK FOR TOUCH & CLARA
by Peter Gill by Arthur Miller
Orange Tree Theatre 1 Clarence Street TW9 2SA To 24 June 2006
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat 20 June 2.30pm (+ post-show discussion) 24 June 4pm
Audio-described 20 June 7.45pm
Runs 2hr 15min One interval
TICKETS: 020 8940 3633
www.orangetreetheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 19 June
Silk and tweed: varied dramatic materials sensitively handled.
Admirably, the Orange Tree season ends with the annual double-bill from 2 young directors. The quality’s as high as ever here. Actors, designers etc are people who might work at the Orange Tree during the season (the directors choose their casts) and directors with impressive CVs have come through this programme. This year, both Amy Hodge and Imogen Bond show the scrupulousness and truth the Orange Tree’s intimate in-the-round stage demands.
These plays involve family tensions, looking to the past, but in different styles. Peter Gill revisits his native Wales in a minimalist piece where terse dialogue implies thoughts and feelings in an emotional triangle that shifts across a decade, the intensity of unspoken feelings illuminated by sudden mood changes.
All this on a stage with suitably minimalist furniture in a production which treads the tightrope of tautened minds. Occasional long silences emphasise the dangerous emotional corners in the 3 lives; these are conveyed with exemplary discipline and understanding, resolving in the final sight of Eileen with 2 young boys replacing the men in her life.
Arthur Miller’s play (one-half of his Danger: Memory) is a rough beast by comparison, its language filled with asides, humour, concrete details. The stage furniture here’s aptly more substantial. A recording of ‘Shenandoah’ plays as events move towards a climax, its slow repeated verse-form contrasting the agitation around. Flashlight photographs are taken for evidence, the stage illuminates at times with a swish as the dead Clara’s father pumps further into his memory to reach at the name of her killer.
Though Kenneth Jay’s father seems more office-worker than manual labourer in manner, his arduous digging into the past suitably contrasts the brief moments of repose envisioning his dead daughter. Kieron Jecchinis is a human policeman, but, notepad in hand, his purpose stays professional. Good work from Chris Newland’s secondary detective and Susie Emmett who in several appearances and a few words evokes the hopeful, liberal world that’s been smashed by her murder.
But this is directors’ night; Hodge and Bond both show economy of means, awareness of style and understanding of their varied material.
Kick For Touch:
Joe: Mark Frost
Jim: Rhydian Jones
Eileen: Miranda Cook
Boys: Ed Beales, Oliver Griffiths/James Tippett, Oliver Tippett
Director: Amy Hodge
Designer: Sam Dowson
Lighting: Stuart Burgess
Music: Tom Hodge
Clara:
Albert Kroll: Kenneth Jay
Detective Lieutenant Fine: Kieron Jecchinis
Officer Tierney: Chris Newland
Clara: Susie Emmett
Voice coach: Stephen Kemble
Director: Imogen Bond
Designer: Sam Dowson
Lighting: Stuart Burgess
Voice coach: Stephen Kemble
2006-06-20 10:17:26