LITTLE BABY NOTHING. To 21 June.
London
LITTLE BABY NOTHING
by Catherine Johnson
Bush Theatre To 21 June 2003
Mon-Sat 8pm
Runs 1hr 55min One interval
TICKETS: 020 7610 4224
www.bushtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 26 May 2003
Some well-observed scenes don't disguise an action lacking drive .It's like one of those pictures which change when held at different angles – so small a shift, the difference could be an unconscious hand tremor. Catherine Johnson's return to the Bush - which produced several good plays of hers before she went on to the big-time smash of scripting Mamma Mia - flicks in a moment between a perceptive story of early to mid teens and a contrived adult idea of youth. And it draws black magic dabblings into an effortful working out of an apparently conceptually planned study of love and its difficulties.
The young come up to their 15th birthdays during the play – 'Fifteen's weird, innit? Fourteen's like you can still be a kid and get away with it and sixteen's grown up, but, fifteen…'. That's birthday girl Erin, slower-witted than friend El. They share their mate Joby in a kind of pre-sexual trio that's losing the 'pre-'.
Alice O' Donnell and Jenny Platt give a good sense of their characters' age through stance and facial expression. O' Donnell especially gives a fine performance with annoyance at her 37 year old mother who can't do anything right for her. Platt catches Erin's puzzlement and defensive retreat into a vocal cadencing ending with a rising interrogative challenge when she feels criticised. It's realistic but the production backs her into it rather often.
It's hardly Tom Daplyn's fault that height and adult male voice constantly pushes the idea of someone several years older acting young. It makes the relationship work subconsciously in a different way from what the script's saying.
This runs into the Satanism, which –like the age of 15 – veers between child-play and seriousness. It also tricks Mike Bradwell's production into some spooky sounds and lights which do not belong to the realistic action.
Johnson develops her adults less well; especially the solid builder Craig, despite the suitably named Jem Wall's finely controlled performance. That fine actor Suzan Sylvester again seems to me miscast: someone whose stage persona suggests intelligence and stability playing a chaotic-minded mother. Still, the tension has its positive side and she creates several touchingly reflective moments.
El Phillips: Alice O' Connell
Erin Gale: Jenny Platt
Joby Taylor: Tom Daplyn
Anna Phillips: Suzan Sylvester
Craig George: Jem Wall
Director: Mike Bradwell
Designer/Costume: Jonathan Fensom
Lighting: Nick Richings
Sound: John Leonard for Aura
2003-05-27 18:30:43