LOVE ME TONIGHT. To 20 November.
London
LOVE ME TONIGHT
by Nick Stafford
Hampstead Theatre To 27 November 2004
Mon-Sat.745pm Mat Sat pm
Runs 2hr 30min One interval
TICKETS: 020 7722 9301
www.hampsteadtheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 2 November
Bare bones show through dramatic flesh.Can acting be too good (can you be too rich, or too beautiful)? This premiere can claim first-rate acting, but the combined impact is to throw the action into too sharp relief, exposing strains in the play's imagination. Even though, in many ways it's well written, exploring grief after the funeral of Vince, youngest member of the family here.
The action takes place in a kitchen, plates from the funeral baked meats being brought in for cleaning. Outside is the sea, its low moans periodically coming from through the exterior blackness of a great void. Consciences too get a soaking and are hung out to dry as conversation turns on guilt and past actions, oiled by drink and resentment.
Vince's funeral has taken place on the day his GCSE results arrived; his grandparents Roy and Moira are moving over the hill into retirement - there's talk of a camper van for their thirds age grazing days. But no-one's done with the past yet.
Nick Stafford moves his family quartet through situations exploring tensions and differing perspectives. Some sections leap into prominence through sudden vivacity (a game Sarah persuades the family to play, with Stuart suspicious of its hidden agenda) or impose themselves on the mind through quiet intensity (a long scene between father and son near the end).
Yet there's often a sense of these things happening as part of a playwright's plan; of their being aimed at exposing points rather than arising from the characters living through the randomness of experience. Fleshing out life without revealing the skeletal order giving shape to the dramatic action is the realistic playwright's chief trick, and here it doesn't come off consistently.
It's not the fault of Kathy Burke's direction, which must have been meticulous to achieve such concentration and conviction in the playing, yet has swept away the sculptor's trappings to leave the object itself free. The acting is excellent, though Hugh Ross and Amanda Abbington offer straight realism, while Linda Bassett and Nicolas Tennant work through more individually-styled approaches. All are fine, but somehow the differences only accentuate the play's artificiality.
Sarah: Amanda Abbington
Moira: Linda Bassett
Roy: Hugh Ross
Stuart: Nicolas Tennant
Director: Kathy Burke
Designer: Bob Bailey
Lighting: Chris Davey
Sound: Kal Ross
2004-11-13 13:36:24