MARIANA PINEDA. To 12 October.

London

MARIANA PINEDA
by Federico Garcia Lorca translated by Gwynne Edwards

Gate Theatre To 12 October 2002
Mon-Sat 7.30pm
Runs 1hr 25min No interval

TICKETS 020 7229 0706
Review Timothy Ramsden 26 September

Lesser-known Lorca receives a deserved outing as first slice in the Gate's death-drama season.In three brief acts, Lorca tells of a young woman executed in 1831 for sewing a Republican flag. Of course, there's more than that to Lorca's play, where political idealism runs alongside intense passion, some of it caught in Kate Wild's cool production.

Mariana's trouble is, it's Philip Ralph's sinister, and sleekly modern, security chief physical desire mixing with command of the situation in Philip Ralph's hint of a smile, and sudden switches to threat who fancies Mariana while her beloved political radicals abandon her. (They came, looking efficiently revolutionary, talked, bustled and left giving no impression how much Mariana's politics are fuelled by passion, or her love by political idealism.)

There's a more memorable presence for the women around Mariana. Elizabeth Hurran and Kesty Morrison create nice touches of friction between their young pair. Virginia Denham and Debra Penny make darker-clad, sympathetically cautious presences, Denham suggesting, as a convent minder, concern at Sotomayor's treatment of Mariana.

Kate Fleetwood's heroine embodies the production's contained style. In the Gate's tight performance space - made to seem more spacious as it lopes off behind a section of audience, numerous sun-catching windows cut into its blanched wall - overt emotionalism would overwhelm and obscure. There's clarity here. But Mariana's intensity has to be grasped from facial flickers (too many idealism-signing smiles) and the degree to which struggling self-control isn't quite complete. There's a sudden moment of joy when she thinks Pedrosa has come to rescue her, curdling to disappointment when it's only Fernando the doggedly loving (and aptly played) neighbour for whom she cannot care.

It's through Michael Oliva's score that Lorca's poetic style finds expression, and the wistful, action-framing ballad innocently sung by a childlike voice as Alex Rose's young girl innocently plays on stage. Overall, the production's like a great bird held in a keeper's hands. It's features can be clearly seen; you can sense the bristling energy. But you miss the soaring beauty of its flight.

Still, this bird's far from a turkey. As opener for the Gate's autumn season, 'a politick death', it shows how artistically life-enhancing fatality can be.

Girl: Alex Rose
Dona Angustias/Sister Carmen: Virginia Denham
Isabel La Clavela: Debra Penny
Amparo/2nd Novice:Kesty Morrison
Lucia/1st Novice: Elizabeth Hurran
Mariana Pineda: Kate Fleetwood
Fernando/1st Conspirator: Christian Bradley
Boy: Charlie Dybell
Don Pedro de Sotomayor: Philip Ralph
2nd Conspirator: Ronald Fernee
Pedrosa: John Kirk

Director: Kate Wild
Designer: Naomi Dawson
Lighting: Flick Ansell
Sound/Score: Michael Oliva

2002-09-28 09:57:50