LOVELY AND MISFIT. To 31 March.
London
LOVELY AND MISFIT
by Tennessee Williams
Trafalgar Studios (Studio 2) To 31 March 2007
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Wed & Sat 3pm
Runs 1hr 50min One interval
TICKETS: 0870 060 6632
www.theambassadors.com/trafalgarstudios (booking fee by ‘phone or online)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 21 March
Lovely and well-fitted to this intimate space.
These short plays date between the 1930s and 1950s and have been rescued from whatever bottom drawer or treasure chest Tennessee Williams kept them in. Not that there’s anything that needs concealing or apologising for here. This is the world of Vieux Carre, of Glass Menagerie (especially the middle play in this trio), and of the gay yearning that lies not far beneath the surface of troubled hetero-relationships in the full-length, better-known dramas.
Anna Ledwich directs with unerring surefootedness, creating three diamond-bright productions. A director’s first talent is getting the cast right; Ledwich has assembled some wonderful actors, without a single weak link. And she’s weighed character relationships, needs and longings perfectly. There’s not a single overwrought, effortful or hollow performance throughout: all traps Williams sets for actors.
Mr Paradise is a sliver but does not seem slight, thanks to immaculate playing. A society girl, fresh and enthusiastic, chances upon a poetry collection and searches out its reclusive and dishevelled old author, determined to swing the spotlight back onto him. But he shuns the limelight, emphasising the gap between person and poetry.
Ted van Griethuysen avoids emotionalism, calmly arguing his case: the poems’ soul can take wing when the poet’s body is no longer around to embarrass them. Jennifer Higham miraculously creates a bright girl, a lively mind in a world of chauffeurs and social calls, out of very little material. Her intelligence matures as she listens to his arguments in this 12-minute, 24-carat gem.
After Summer By the Lake’s fascinating foreshadowing of Glass Menagerie (but with the stifled son taking more extreme measures) comes the longest of these shorts, an encounter between affluent, property-owning transvestite Candy and hetero-hunk sailor Carl.
Candy’s search for love, and anger at tacky gay-life are played with inner intensity and surface tact in Edward Hughes’ moving performance, while Matt Ryan charts Carl’s veering between temptation and macho assertions without any stereotyping. The double sense of loss fuels the play as neither man gets what he wants.
This evening of human yearning and failure is among the most fulfilling shows to be seen in London.
Mr Paradise
Mr Paradise: Ted van Griethuysen
The Girl: Jennifer Higham
Summer By the Lake
Mrs Fenway: Diana Kent
Donald Fenway: David Hartley
Anna: Jennifer Higham
And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens
Candy Delaney: Edward Hughes
Karl: Matt Ryan
Alvin Krenning: David Hartley
Jerry Johnson: Carl Ferguson
Director: Anna Ledwich
Designer: Helen Goddard
Lighting: Matthew Haskins
Sound: Tshari King
Dialect coach: Michaela Kennan
Fight coach: Terry King
Assistant director: Joseph Austin
Assistant dialect: Helena Easton
2007-03-22 01:44:46