MEMORY. To 9 December.

Cardiff

MEMORY
by Jonathan Lichtenstein

Chapter Arts Centre 5-9 December 2006
Tue-Sat 8pm
Runs 1hr 30min No interval

TICKETS: 029 2030 4400
www.chapter.org
Review: Timothy Ramsden 25 November at Clwyd Theatr Cymru (Emlyn Williams Theatre)

Intense and gripping drama of history’s impact on human nature.
Crises shape human memory. Moments of modern history have created the identity of Eva, a German Jew who survived the Nazis but cannot bear to see her grandchild in 1990, as the wall comes down about her in East Berlin. Meanwhile another wall goes up in present-day Bethlehem; the Jews here on the offensive in an often-remarked-upon turnaround of historical position.

In each era relations form and the seeds of history begin to germinate. Human nature can break through political, or racial, positions, but when it involves men and an attractive young woman it doesn’t always do so to the credit of humanity.

Lichtenstein has chosen familiar reference points: the advance of Nazism, the Berlin Wall tumbling down, Israeli/Palestinian hostility. Theatre’s dealt with them all. But Memory makes a point about the isolation of the dispossessed. Eva could only afford to save one of her children on the Kindertransport; tickets cost money even on the “mercy trains”. Nowhere wanted Germany’s Jews. Nor does anyone want the Palestinians. “We’re the Jews of the Middle East. No one wants us,” declares Ifan Huw Dafydd’s gravely thoughtful Bashar.

His other vital strategy is to set the action within a theatre rehearsal. It’s convenient, especially as Vivien Parry’s Eva transforms from 21 to 78. It also compares the flickers of memory with the playwright’s rewrites. And in piano-playing playwright/director Ben it allows the calm, logical beauty of Bach’s keyboard counterpoint to underplay the harsh rattle of typed-out scene-titles and the dislocated urgency of crises.

Chiefly though, there’s the contrast between the actors’ everyday world: late arrivals, a parking-meter to feed, arguments over script changes, and their characters’ greater disruptions and dilemmas. Portraying Eva eventually brings Barbara to a point of emotional incapacity. This part, and its role-within-the-role, are perfectly caught by Vivien Parry, showing young Eva’s joy solidify to guilt and determination in age, moving as Barbara from relaxed movement to the tautness of identification with Eva.

The excellent cast play with concentration under Terry Hands’ apparently invisible but tightly-defined direction on a near-bare stage that offers the black-and-white of memory in graphic clarity.

Ben/Director: Christian McKay
Barbara/Eva: Vivien Parry
Lee/Peter: Lee Haven-Jones
Olly/Isaac: Oliver Ryan
Huw/Bashar: Ifan Huw Dafydd
Dan/Felix: Daniel Hawksford
Simon/Aron: Simon Nehan

Director/Lighting: Terry Hands
Designer: Martyn Bainbridge
Sound: Matthew Williams

2006-11-26 14:07:31