MAKING WAVES, till 24 May
Scarborough
MAKING WAVES
by Stephen Clark
Stephen Joseph Theatre (The Round) To 24 May 2003
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 10,24 May 2.30pm
Audio-described 22,24 (2.30pm) May
BSL Signed 23 May
Post-show follow-up 6 May
Runs 2hr 15min One interval
TICKETS: 01723 370541
Review: Timothy Ramsden 3 May, 2003
Coming home, coming of age drama from an up-and-coming playwright.
Several genres play combine in Stephen Clark’s often involving, realistic drama. There’s the occupation drama: grizzled lifeboatman Mike and younger son Luke are bound to their life-saving mission on England’s North-East coast. Always within call – the traditional maroon combined with a modern bleeper – they rush from home on demand.
It gives Mike a sense of purpose, within a strange vacuum. Clark gives each character a brief solo, as they address various audiences. Mike talks to potential lifeboat recruits, rotating in slow silence to demonstrate the active job’s actual essence: waiting.
His younger son Luke has to choose between a lifetime’s similar obsession, or the woman he loves. Territorial waters – it’s an issue for Luke and Helen in whose bed they first sleep together – are stirred by elder brother Sam’s return from New York. He’s everything his father doesn’t like. Not only did he reject the boats, he’s leaped into the swollen, tricky waters of individualism, enterprise and the life of e-business.
Ironically, Sam’s project involves setting-up an internet agony aunt and counselling service: credit card comfort for those without the support of a close community. Here too’s the homecoming play, with it clashing lifestyles and expectations.
The contrast of ideals is stark but over-contrived. Both in writing and James Weaver’s performance, this is the most one-dimensional part of the play – especially when it’s weakened as his e-hopes crash.
But the home turf is firm ground for Clark and director Daniel Slater, who tread it confidently. Only two points fail to register convincingly: Ruth’s desire for a chips on a rain-swept beach and Luke’s sudden resolve, at his brother’s urging, to put love before lifeboats. Even this brings lovely performances from Neil Granger and Niky Wardley, as the girl who knows she needs Luke’s mind as well as heart.
Alison Mac is ideal as the lively daughter who knows she must escape home if her personality is not to congeal. Geoff Leesley’s stubborn, grizzled Mike is beautifully balanced by Charlie Hardwick – an actress from these parts, who clearly knows the life and character inside-out, giving an apparently effortless, totally truthful and deeply involving portrayal.
Mike: Geoff Leesley
Ruth: Charlie Hardwick
Sam: James Weaver
Luke: Neil Granger
Jo: Alison Mac
Helen: Niky Wardley
Director: Daniel Slater
Designer: Francis O’ Connor
Lighting: James Farncombe
Sound: Ben Vickers
Dialect coach: William Conacher
2003-05-12 19:26:08