MASS APPEAL. To 22 April.
London
MASS APPEAL
by Bill C Davis
Finborough Theatre Finborough Pub 118 Finborough Road SW10 To 22 April 2006
Tue-Sat 7.30pm
Runs 1hr 45min One interval
TICKETS: 0870 4000 838 (24 hours)
www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 165 April
Finborough intimacy helps keep formulaic feel from revived play.
Drew Ackroyd’s Finborough production of American Bill C Davis’ 1981 play, which had a Hammersmith productioon in 1982, is set in present-day England (Davis has recently revised the script, updating references and sharpening issues). It’s the kind of two-character tussle, the interlocking horns of a couple of stubborn wills, that makes for wide appeal in the theatre.
Some major difference of perspective is usual for such plays. Race or gender often enough; here it’s age and youth. Practised Catholic parish priest Tim Farley, into an easy relationship with his congregation and himself, fond of discussions in place of sermons, takes on a neophyte seminarian, Mark Dolson, who lacks his rounded-edges. Dolson has sharp corners; he wants to know reasons why people are where they stand.
Ecclesiastical authority lies offstage, in the seminary where power to terminate Dolson’s avidly desired ambition towards the priesthood threatens him after he defends two fellow neophytes suspected of having a sexual relation. As the younger man veers towards the rock-face of having to compromise frankness with survival, the older priest follows the familiar pattern of such plays by moving to his support. In the end, it’s Farley rather than Dolson who might be achieving some sort of salvation from himself.
It’s a pity Davis places the older man on the tip of alcoholism. This contrast with Dolson’s urgency weights the emotional grab-bag too heavily. Overall, Davis supplies the material for a heartwarming boulevard melodrama, with transparency of character and motive. If Ackroyd’s cast don’t clarify the emotional arch clearly, that suits the Finborough’s intimacy where naked emotion can soon become overpowering. It also keeps the action fresh-seeming.
That especially benefits Brendan Patricks’ young Mark. His keen, sharp manner goes with a directness that initially fails to see the subtle shadings of the more sophisticated behaviour it would be dangerous to call Jesuitical in this context. Patricks gives a sense of his character learning about life as more than a laboratory for his ideas, just as Kevin Colson’s grizzled experience reveals new conviction under the trivial round of common tasks in his easy ministry.
Father Tim Farley: Kevin Colson
Mark Dolson: Brendan Patricks
Director: Drew Ackroyd
Designer: Atlanta Duffy
Lighting: Mary Pope
Music: Jane Watkins
2006-04-18 14:25:49