KINDERTRANSPORT. To 22 May.

Bolton

KINDERTRANSPORT
by Diane Samuels

Octagon Theatre To 22 May 2004
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 15 May 2pm
Runs 2hr 15min One interval

TICKETS: 01204 520661
Review: Timothy Ramsden 8 May

Superb production flair and fine performances make for an outstanding revival.Mark Babych's splendid revival reveals the terrifying complexity in Diane Samuels' drama of Jewish children brought from Nazi Germany in the last 9 months before war, and its skilful use of allusive theatrical metaphor to capture elusive experience.

The action switches between the 1990s present' where Evelyn battles with a daughter who's leaving home, and the war which uncovers her past as a Jewish child, Eva. The action reveals a deeply serious macaronic pun. For all the kindertransport saved lives, little could be unkinder, transporting them away from their sense of identity.

It's played around a huge stack of cases, reminding the individual's story is part of a huger scene and emphasising Eva/Evelyn's lifelong sense of alienation. Babych highlights key moments physically, often in relation to the sole male figure.

This Ratcatcher is a sinister child-stealer, transmuting into a Nazi guard, frightening even when offering young Eva a sweet. Alexander Delamere's substantial figure menaces as he beckons or rises from within the suitcase pile, a threat wherever Eva goes. He turns even a jocose British postman into an extension of this fear-figure, his voice distorted into soft threats which only she hears.

Ann Rye easily transposes between today's' grandma and Eva's 1939 English mother', mixing her down-to-earth manner with a sense of veiled emotions. Anna Northam's elegant pre-war Jewish mother initially seems undeveloped, simply the adult keeping the worst from her daughter. It's only when she arrives, hair cropped, to seek out Eva, sitting on the luggage-pile, turned away in separation, that the depth of role and performance are fully revealed.

Janice McKenzie brings emotional weariness to Evelyn's arguments with Faith, never forcing the sense of anomie. Today's problems are foremost, but her obsessive cleaning tells its own story. The result's a fine contrast with Christabel Fellowes' youthful certainty about life.

Claire Redcliffe's Eva gives the production its heart. Growing from a self-belief equalling Faith's, half-a-century on, unaware how much she'll need a skill like sewing, developing vocally from childhood to maturity, the accent gradually Anglicising with her mind. Mixing daily life with past nightmares, it's a remarkable centre to a fine production.

Ratcatcher: Alexander Delamere
Faith: Christabel Fellowes
Evelyn: Janice McKenzie
Helga: Anna Northam
Eva: Claire Redcliffe
Lil: Ann Rye

Director: Mark Babych
Designer: Dawn Allsopp
Lighting: Thomas Weir
Sound: Andy Smith
Dialect coach: Heather van Straten

2004-05-10 13:14:52