MERCY. To 7 August.

London

MERCY
by Lin Coghlan

Soho Theatre To 7 August 2004
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 4pm
Audio-described 3 August
BSL Signed 5 August
Post-show discussion 24 July 2.30pm
Runs 1hr 30min No interval

TICKETS: 0870 429 6883
www.sohotheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 17 July

Atmospheric production of a worthy script.Darkness and rain surround Lin Coghlan's characters, who start out as separate groups but come together in a barn, recognising each other and piling together neuroses and limitations. For the most part they're teenagers fringing on crime or running away from institutions - some overlap there with Simon Stephen's concurrent Country Music.

Both Coghlan and Stephens have worked with young people who have unsettled lives, and both find hope in their characters. Coghlan is the more ambiguous and less successful. The flooding and white rain are taken by military cadet Terry for a major terrorist attack; Coghlan's eventual explanation of this strange rain is clumsily presented and unconvincing.

Then there are unexplained presences a woman with a baby, her car full of premium computer equipment, and a stake through her body. And shrunken monkey heads, in these desperate conditions an alternative to cannibalism.

Everyone's on the run, seeking new identities, even social worker Rory, who - leaving home and job - gets mugged and arrives clutching a rooster. But what finally allows these young people, who initially seem no-hopers, to move forward in their lives, is their response to other people.

It's their refusal to leave the dying woman or abandon her baby, that provides the dramatic light amid the encircling theatrical gloom of Andy Phillips' atmospheric lighting. Cookie, the special needs' brother streetwise Mac won't leave behind, senses it as he sings a hymn, The day Thou gavest, Lord, is Ended/ The darkness falls at thy behest'.

This, the second flood play of recent years, lacks the unexplained strangeness of Alex Jones' River Up without keeping its head above water in its own way. Despite Paul Miller's keen direction of the fine performances and Hayden Griffin's set splitting the characters on two levels, before the upper one tilts to provide the barn roof where everybody gathers during the flood, the action never springs to life.

The script remains good dialogue rather than becoming real speech. And the symbols remain dead weights almost as bad as Athol Fugard's Dimetos, another case of a dramatic scheme not infused with life.

Cookie: Danny Worters
Deccy: Andrew Garfield
Jean: Samantha King
Mac: Adam Rhys Dee
Rory: Peter Sullivan
Terry: Elliott Jordan

Director: Paul Miller
Designer: Hayden Griffin
Lighting: Andy Phillips
Sound: John Leonard
Costume: Chris Chahill

2004-07-20 01:22:01