LADYBIRD. To 27 March.

London

LADYBIRD
by Vassily Sigarev translated by Sasha Dugdale

Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs To 27 March 2004
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Sat 4pm
Runs 1hr 30min No interval

TICKETS: 020 7565 5000
www.royalcourttheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 18 March

The hard-stuff from Russia in another of Sigarev's dramas of the young and dispossessed.It may be set on the 4th floor of a flat-block but Vassily Sigarev's play's about people at the bottom of the heap. Dima and spaced-out Slavik survive by selling-on plaques from the decayed cemetery by their Dead and Alive' flats Over here the alive, over there the dead. Or the other way round'. They're a refuge for the destitute, like Dima's father, The Waster, who's drunk the two of them into the place.

Dima's taking a traditional route out, joining the army. His friend Lera's hooked by the new capitalism, looking for roubles to buy from Euroshop and qualify for the prize a glossy envelope seems to offer. For a teenager who's never seen her name on an envelope - Not by hand, but printed. Like in the magazines' - it's head-spinning.

There are wispy suggestions of a social system behind these characters' lives, but they exist in a half-world. The pretty ladybird, able to fly away, might be a symbol of hope but it's super-fragile in this world, where the other creatures crawling around are the ants Slavik tucks into when not eating the furniture.

Ramin Gray's production finds light and shade in these people. Daniel Mays' semi-naked, upright pole of a Dima is most co-ordinated, thrown off-balance by Lera's friend Yulka. An elegant, appearing self-controlled, stranger in this world, Anna Madeley's sharp, flat voice eventually reveals the most unbalanced mind of the lot.

Kevin McMonagle's efficient in the older, less integrated role of Dima's dad, while Christine Bottomley's Lera excellently shows someone trying to cope with one idea at once. Burn Gorman stamps Slavik as an individual while Jason Done's Arkasha shows the new-rich type grubbing among the dirt of this society.

Staged inventively, video capturing a couple of essential moments set elsewhere around the block, this is a dispiriting report from the modern Russia - where Lera proudly separates herself from the peasant woman shown on her envelope as a previous competition winner. Less well done it might seem gratuitously relentless. Here, there's a faint tinge of hope, and a disciplined restraint in performance that just prevents the Ladybird itself sliding from symbol into sentiment.

Lera: Christine Bottomley
Arkasha: Jason Done
Slavik: Burn Gorman
Yulka: Anna Madeley
Dima: Daniel Mays
Waster/Old Woman: Kevin McMonagle

Director: Ramin Gray
Designer: Lizzie Clachan
Lighting: Nigel Edwards
Sound: Ian Dikinson
Movement: Sarah Beard
Company voice work: Patsy Rodenburg
Assistant director: Noah Birksted-Breen

2004-03-21 10:16:21