KURSK To 27 June.
London.
KURSK
by Bryony Lavery.
Young Vic (Maria Theatre). To June 27, 2009.
Mon-Sat 7.45pm.
Mat Sat & 24 J 2.45pm.
Runs 1hr 20min.
TICKETS: 020 7922 2922..
www.youngvictheatre.org
Review: Carole Woddis 8 April.
The place is the thing.
On August 12, 2000, a huge blast ripped through the Oscar II class nuclear cruise missile submarine Kursk, on exercise in the Barents Sea. The pride of the Russian navy, all hands were lost. This joint production between the Young Vic, the Junction in Cambridge and young producing company Fuel, takes that incident as the start for a kind of homage to the lost sailors.
Strangely, it doesn’t investigate the political storm surrounding the incident – that the Russians refused help from British and Norwegian rescue-teams, and the possible cause for the explosion being neglect and under-investment following the Soviet Union’s collapse.
Instead, writer Bryony Lavery, with Mark and Tom Espiner and Dan Jones of Sound and Fury concentrate on theatrically recreating the experience of being in a submarine and what it tells us about men thrown together under such conditions.
The experience is first and last about claustrophobia, camaraderie, maleness and the ethics of leadership. As such, it’s a part-success, the triumph of the evening being the environment – the Maria studio transformed into the inside of the hull of a British sub, complete with gantries, shower, loo and cramped bunk-beds by designer Jon Bausor, lighting designer Hansjörg Schmidt, with input from a swathe of naval and submarine advisers. It’s an extraordinary creative feat.
Unfortunately, the play’s dramatic structure doesn’t quite live up to its surroundings. One of the premises of the play is the possible rescue this British sub crew might have been able to offer. A light tapping sound is heard from time to time. It turns out anti-climactically to be one of the crew over-zealously remembering his girlfriend back home. Light relief, you might say, at a moment of darkest reality.
Professionalism abounds. The all-male cast set to studying monitors and steering `105 degrees’ to the manner born whilst bulking out a script that requires them to emote about cot deaths, a distance poetry course and other personal domestic details as well as fear.
The Cruel Sea it ain’t but it’s still absorbing enough for those of us who remember that story’s moment of sailing through torpedoed survivors.
Donnie Black: Ian Ashpitel.
Casanovaken: Bryan Dick.
Newdadmike: Tom Espiner.
Donnie Mac: Gareth Farr.
Commander: Laurence Mitchell.
Unseen characters: Amanda Laurence, Victoria Moseley, Hannah Ringham, Maria Kozlovskaya and the company of the Maly Theatre.
Directors: Mark Espiner & Dan Jones.
Designer: Jon Bausor.
Lighting: Hansjörg Schmidt.
Sound: Dan Jones.
Sound assistant: Carlo Ippolito.
Additional movement direction: Toby Sedgwick.
Submarine technical adviser: Robert Nunn.
2009-06-10 16:54:23