LET THERE BE LOVE. To 16 February.
London.
LET THERE BE LOVE
by Kwame Kwei-Armah.
Tricycle Theatre To 16 February 2008.
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat Sat 4pm & 6,13 Feb 2pm
Runs 2hr 25min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 7328 1000.
www.tricycle.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 22 February.
Feelgood comedy with fine performances..
There’s a popular kind of drama that tugs every heartstring going through an ‘odd couple’ relationship. One example is Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy. It’s essential the two characters start widely apart in sex, age, ethnicity and temperament; they’re people you know would never get on in life, just as you’re aware that on stage there’s going to be an eventual emotional rapprochement.
It’s the tension between this human irresistible force/unmoveable object conflict and the theatrical desire for a resolution that can make such plays fascinating. And oiling the action there’s the younger person’s irrepressible positive energy, eroding the older one’s curmudgeonly resistance.
It’s doubtless too much to suggest Kwame Kwei-Armah named his male character after Uhry as contributor to the genre, which he gives a modern British flavour in his new play. But the meeting of ex-Caribbean long-term British resident Alfred, home from hospital and estranged from his family, with Polish home-help Maria sets off the syndrome in fine style.
She tops his resentments without noticing they’re there, while his assumption she’s a thieving immigrant, and complaints about her mangling of the English language he uses with eloquent precision, make clear there’s something loveable underneath his constant grumbling, while her explosive resentment at her Euro-neighbours detonates the evening’s biggest laugh.
Laughter is used mainly to stoke up the sentimental heat which fuels such plays. And sentiment’s stoked by mortality looming over the action, a plot-strand Armah handles expertly. More pungently, Alfred’s attachment to Maria offsets his mutual hostility with Gemma, the one of Alfred’s daughters we meet. Yet she too joins the final rosy glow, where realism’s overtly exceeded to make melancholy joy.
It all fits Alfred’s beloved Nat King Cole, played on his proudest possession, a cabinet gramophone. Nat’s tracks chart the budding relationship. It’s only a pity director Armah has Alfred repeatedly removing the stylus from his vinyl mid-song. No music lover would ever have committed such desecration. There again, this is a romance. One well-performed by both women, but crowned by Joseph Marcell’s superbly detailed Alfred, registering each reaction and thought. The play’s enjoyable; Marcell’s outstanding.
Gemma: Sharon Duncan-Brewster.
Alfred: Joseph Marcell.
Maria: Lydia Leonard.
Director: Kwame Kwei-Armah.
Designer: Helen Goddard.
Lighting: Rachael McCutcheon.
Sound: Neil Alexander.
Choreographer: Jason Pennycooke.
Dialect coach: Majella Hurley.
Assistant designer: Megan Huish.
2008-01-23 13:51:42