MEETINGS. To 20 October.

London.

MEETINGS
by Mustapha Matura.

Arcola Theatre (Studio 2) 27 Arcola Street E8 2DJ To 20 October 2007.
Mon-Sat 8.15pm.
Runs 2hr One interval.

TICKETS: 020 7503 1646.
www.arcolatheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 15 October.

Worth re-meeting Trinidadian yuppies a generation on.
Hugh and Jean, young married professionals in Trinidad, have a lot of business meetings. There’s hardly time for coffee and a slice of toast before they’re off. But Hugh’s encounter with an old woman outside his office-block sets him looking away from Americanised society to older customs, and traditional food.

Rejecting the fast-food that accompanies their fast, artificial lifestyle, Hugh brings in young Elsa to cook traditional dishes. In a world where Jean urges her husband to make maximum profits, Elsa expects only bed and board in return for cooking meals for Hugh, which his wife has no time to eat.

Jean’s touring villages like Elsa’s, marketing cigarettes. Their particular chemical additive takes its toll onstage and off. Here’s a theme that’s become more emphatic since 1980, and any organic, anti-additive (let alone smoking) campaigner seeing Blue Hug Theatre’s revival in the Arcola’s smaller space will find a lot that’s familiar even without the specifics of Trinidad culture.

Unfortunately, this also makes the play seem simplistic. It’s clear from Jean’s first cough how matters will develop. She may shrug it off but as the severe coughing recurs it’s amazing Elsa continues working and Jean speaking without either suggesting a drink of water. The play, is after all, set in a kitchen.

The cast of Dan Barnard’s efficient production don’t disguise the play’s contrivance, lacking the shadings that could deepen characters’ reactions But they do play to its compensating strengths, the clear characters, and economic dialogue that runs consistently through humorous and tense moments.

There’s a strong contrast between the women. Inika Leigh Wright’s brisk Jean, quick in her movements and speech, soon rising to vocal sharpness when things don’t run smoothly; the stressed executive who orders chicken in a cardboard box. And Davinia Anderson’s calm, smiling Elsa, working steadily, satisfied with life, coping with the severest problems with a sense of fatalism. Nicholai La Barrie’s Hugh is less sharply-focused by the production.

It’s an intriguing, if hardly revelatory, revival, played on James Humphrey’s detailed set – though it’s surely time this materially successful household treated themselves to a more efficient toaster.

Hugh: Nicholai La Barrie.
Jean: Inika Leigh Wright.
Elsa: Davinia Anderson.

Director: Dan Barnard.
Designer: James Humphrey.
Lighting: Katharine Williams.
Sound/Music: Edward Lewis, Toby Knowles.
Voice/Movement: Morwenna Rowe.
Assistant director: Blanche McIntyre.

2007-10-16 10:36:38