LARKIN WITH WOMEN. To 29 April.
London
LARKIN WITH WOMEN
by Ben Brown
Orange Tree Theatre To 29 April 2006
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Thu 2.30pm, Sat 4pm
Audio-described 18 April, 22 April 4pm
Post-show discussion after Thursday mats
Saturday seminar: 22 April 11am
Runs 2hr 20min One interval
TICKETS: 020 8940 3633
www.orangetreetheatre.co.uk
Wild laughter in the ever-present throat of death.
It shouldn’t work, this, but it does. Oliver Ford Davies is not only a different build from petit poet Philip Larkin, for whom the job of University Librarian at Hull (a true English terminus) seems fitting. This rich-voiced actor also exudes an appetite for life at odds with Larkin’s detachment.
Yet Davies conveys so much by a pause, glance or intonation it’s impossible not to enjoy his performance while seeing Larkin’s point. Ben Brown’s serious though frequently hilarious play moves from the mid-1950s (a terminally dowdy decade as the costumes remind) when Larkin was in the Movement, 30 years on to his death in 1985, by when Mrs Thatcher had offered him the Laureateship while her policies were destroying the library he’d built up.
Larkin declined being Poet Laureate, as he declined so much of life. But, despite a reference to an affair in his first librarian’s post in Shropshire (developing a skill in Salop) and having 3 relationships on the go in Hull, including his secretary, Betty, and library worker, Maeve, Larkin sought sex unpromiscuously. If inconsiderate, he was, in his way, serially faithful.
The relationship that really fouls up here is the poet’s with poetry. By the time he’s discovered it’s not the only thing in life, the art has left him. This is charted through his scenes with Monica, the English academic Larkin keeps at arm’s length professionally, though emotionally close. In their opening scene he’s asking her the right word for a major poem; next time he’s screwing up a poem he can’t complete. By act 2 he’s roaring in agony he can no longer write.
The women are beautifully differentiated in Alan Strachan’s detailed production. As Monica, Carolyn Backhouse is straight-backed and forthright, lusty for life and love. Amanda Royle’s Maeve bends her head in limited confidence and smiles ingratiatingly. As a Catholic she won’t have sex (Larkin won’t have marriage), then feels guilty when she does. Jacqueline King‘s Betty moves from prim 50s shock to tolerance and affection. This London outing of Brown’s play confirms its haunting depiction of life passing in death’s shadow.
Philip Larkin: Oliver Ford Davies
Monica: Carolyn Backhouse
Betty: Jacqueline King
Maeve: Amanda Royle
Director: Alan Strachan
Designer: Sam Dowson
Lighting: John Harris
Assistant director: Amy Hodge
2006-04-02 11:43:38