LONGITUDE. To 29 October.

Greenwich

LONGITUDE
by Arnold Wesker based on the book by Dava Sobel

Greenwich Theatre To 29 October 2005
Mon-Sat 8pm except 26 October 7.30pm Mat Wed & Sat 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 20min One interval

TICKETS: 020 8858 7755
www.greenwichtheatre.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 22 October

The man in the crowd triumphs in time.Dava Sobel’s surprise bestseller about 18th century England’s search for a means of telling Longitude, saving ships, men and cargo lost at sea because “they didn’t know where they were”, becomes a hymn to the genius of the people in Arnold Wesker’s adaptation. Humberside artisan John Harrison had the answer through his sea-worthy clock as a 30-something, but was in his 80s before the powers that were grudgingly paid up the final instalment of the promised £20,000 Longitude Award, taking 48 years, 2 Acts of Parliament and a royal intervention to settle the matter of Harrison’s clocks.

It’s a battle of practical reason against the search for a heavens-inspired system among the “priests and politicians” Harrison despises, the great-and-good London smoothies who don’t take to his gruff, blunt manner – though they’re hardly unreasonable in insisting his new clock could be reproduced practically for all ships.

Harrison was someone to whom a lot of c-words might be applied: carpenter, choirmaster, clockmaker. His persistence edges over into obstinacy, something he never recognises, though he’s told by his wife Elizabeth. Mossie Smith, as the sole female character – the only one talking directly to the audience - earths her husband’s temperament, though Wesker gives her one awful, sub-1950s schools TV moment to cue an explanation of the science underlying the invention.

Otherwise, Wesker gives dramatic energy to what’s essentially a series of futile meetings and stormy aftermaths. Fiona Laird’s production enhances the theatricality from the opening when storm-tossed sailors clamber through hatches and over edges onto Anthony Lamble’s circular ship’s-deck set. Harrisons apart, characters are played from among a chorus of trained singers, whom Laird choreographs to consolidate into a snaking panel of commissioners.

Anthony O’Donnell’s pugnaciously reasonable Harrison is a model of the flawed, inspired person representative of the people whose side Wesker’s continuously joined in his plays. O’ Donnell’s gloating smile when he realises he’s had more than the £20,000 promised catches one side of the man’s personality, while his scheme for a scale to enhance music’s beauty, and final conducting of triumphant Hallelujahs shows the visionary in plain man’s guise.

William Harrison: Hadley Fraser
Commissioner/Reader of Legal Documents: Kieran Hill
Martin Folkes/Sir Kenelm Digby/Thomas King/King George III
Lord Morton: Mark Meadows
John Harrison: Anthony O’Donnell
Elizabeth Harrison: Mossie Smith
Dr Edmund Halley/William Ludlam/Dr Demainbray: Christopher Staines
Rev Nevil Maskelyne: Giles Taylor
Larcum Kendall/George Graham/Roger Wills: James Thorne
Lord Egmont: Mick Tigg

Director: Fiona Laird
Designer: Anthony Lamble
Lighting: Ian Scott
Sound: Neil Fulcher
Composer: Paul Englishby
Musical Director: Mark Meadows
Assistant director: Joe Austin

2005-10-25 11:15:23