LAST TRAIN TO NIBROC. To 21 June.
Richmond.
LAST TRAIN TO NIBROC
by Arlene Hutton.
Orange Tree Theatre To 21 June 2008.
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Tue 2.30pm (+Post-show discussion) & Sat 4pm.
Runs 1hr 30min No interval.
TICKETS: 020 8940 3633.
www.orangetreetheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 14 June.
It’s a gift to be simple, convincing – and interesting.
Lack of dramatic ambition, a simple story made out of delaying an inevitable cosy ending; all sorts of criticisms could be hurled at Arllene Hutton’s three-scene play about a young man and woman in early 1940s mid-west America gradually coming together. Plays which spend 90 minutes reaching a proposal of marriage aren’t in the ascendant these days.
Yet it takes skill to hold attention when all the big things happen offstage. Though Raleigh begins in uniform, he’s invalided out of the forces as America becoming more embroiled in conflict. Even a burning lumberyard is merely observed calmly in the distance, adding brightness to the characters’ relationship.
Hutton‘s locations help close-in the relationship. From a chance meeting on a train, where Raleigh’s planning to go to New York to be a writer (there are two famous dead ones in coffins in the guard’s van, but May, whom he meets, is alive), to the fair of which religious-minded May is so afraid, then finally by her house, the gap between the two narrows inevitably.
If little enough happens on the surface, life changes them as three years pass. Her plans to become a missionary settle into teaching; his writing ambition stays alive in newspaper articles, as he turns a hand to the family farm.
In a way it’s an earlier, rural version of Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny, where the tensions and hopes of a relationship are interesting just because its people, while individuals, are not extraordinary on the larger social map.
And every line respects the characters’ dignity. As does every detail and inflection of director Katie Henry’s production, which concludes the Orange Tree’s year of women’s plays. In an age of showy, handprint directors, Henry follows the Orange Tree’s spirit in helping the writer’s voice speak for itself.
This isn’t to deny the careful shaping of both spot-on performances, Chris Starkie’s Raleigh a mix of honest eagerness and nerves, Heather Saunders’ May providing a dialogue between words and detailed facial expressions that convey her hopes and uncertainties in as perfect a performance of this minor jewel as could be imagined.
Raleigh: Chris Starkie.
May: Heather Saunders.
Director: Katie Henry.
Designer: Sam Dowson.
Lighting: Dan Staniforth.
2008-06-15 13:33:22