LISTEN TO YOUR PARENTS.
Manchester
LISTEN TO YOUR PARENTS
by Benjamin Zephaniah
Theatre Centre and Nottingham Playhouse at the Royal Exchange Studio.
Runs 1hr 5min No interval
Review Timothy Ramsden 14 December
Youthful hopes and sorrows in a lively, moving play for 14+.Listen to Mark who tells us a lot about six days in his life and you'd identify a Brummie. Aston in fact, and Villa's his team - a possible signing has him training like mad. And adding to his book of poems. Benjamin Zephaniah's energetic piece which has toured schools nationally before reaching the Exchange Studio certainly gives street cred. to verse.
Listening to Mark's appropriate; this is a reworked radio script. But hear his parents and their Jamaican origins are apparent. Ethnic tension's distant to Mark (it's more of an issue for his Afghan friend Wali, sneered at as an asylum-seeker). Mark's problem lies at home, coming out in some of his poems. Football and love verse, yes, but also one - where he admits 'I care about everything' which exposes how deeply his parents' relationship affects him.
Dad's well-respected at work and by his congregation (he's a part-time preacher). But religion justifies his certainty that 'Feminism is satanism' and men should rule any roost.
Kevin G. Neil does wonders in showing Dad's sincerity; despite the assaults that mash Mum and imprison Mark's mind. The king of open spaces and physical exercise finishes cooped up in his mother's clothes racks, representing the wardrobe that's the house's safest place.
There's overmuch overt violence: learning from the horror-pic people to suggest until the last possible moment would give more concentration and keep focus on motive rather than action (less of a problem on radio, no doubt).
Julie Hewlett's slight figure spends most of the play ironing, increasing the impact when she stands her ground against domestic demands like being woken at 3am to fetch Dad a cup of tea. Richard Sumitro's cheerily playful Wali skilfully offsets Mark's growing preoccupation. At the centre, Mark Nicolson's zest for soccer and rhyme show how youthful potential is damaged by unhappy homes.
Paul J. Medford's production matches the script's energetic pace, creating a semi-formal relationship with the audience, particularly apt for schools' performances, and making varied use of a flexible set, accommodating home and outdoors within the thematically fitting environment of a gym.
Mum: Julie Hewlett
Dad: Kevin G. Neil
Mark: Mark Nicolson
Wali: Richard Sumitro
Director: Paul J. Medford
Designer: Jane Linz Roberts
Lighting: Nick Richings
Voice: Bernadette O' Brien
Accent: Jan Hayden Rowles
Fight director: Nicholas Hall
2002-12-16 14:47:19