MOTORTOWN. To 20 May.
London
MOTORTOWN
by Simon Stephens
Royal Court (Jerwood Theatre Downstairs) To 20 May 2006
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 3.30pm
BSL Signed 4 May
Post-show talk 4 May
Runs 1hr 50min No interval
Echoes of war in a mind disturbed.
Daniel Mays’ role in Simon Stephens’ new play might have been written for him. Mays’ acting is the poetry of nightmare, full of hints and ambiguities, suggesting seismic instability beneath the words.
Who is Danny? The eight isolated scenes, mostly building to threat or violence, are his journey to discover this. His rationale, that he finds England a changed country after his tour of duty in Basra, tells more about Danny’s changed perceptions than any objective shift back home. He feels alienated from his country, taking his feelings out on people with a different appearance or politics from him.
One example of this forms the height of Danny’s violent parabola. It’s hard to watch; for nailbiting tension Stephens far outdoes most so-called thrillers. Danny here is compulsive yet appalling, while watching his victim’s suffering (superbly played) edges on the intrusive. Afterwards, the slow sweeping of debris, to Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas lament, is consoling in its tragic grief. It also anchors the otherwise gnomic choreography with which chairs are moved between scenes (the production, stripped to the theatre’s height and breadth, is almost as good as a backstage tour).
Stephens, director Ramin Gray and Mays make astonishingly clear the switchback of Danny’s mental processes. His aggression is stoked rather than ignited by war. It could be his girlfriend’s given him up, if their relationship ever was as close as he thinks - from the start she’s defensive against Danny’s threatening manner.
Nor is his feeling of inadequacy when he found himself among the hardmen (he relishes telling about barrack-room and street cruelties) without joining them a full explanation. His brother Lee, autistic but more stable and benign, says Danny’s long been a psychopath. He has the bully’s ability to wrongfoot, then go for anyone’s weak point. Mentally vulnerable, Danny attacks others’ vulnerabilities.
Though it concentrates on a specific case, rather than a soldier everyman, Motortown is disturbing. Its fine cast provide throughout the precision of playing needed to avoid the voyeurism of violence, indicating the complex interplay of state and personal violence and the unforeseen consequences of war within society.
Lee: Tom Fisher
Danny: Daniel Mays
Marley: Daniela Denby-Ashe
Tom: Steve Hansell
Paul: Richard Graham
Jade: Ony Uhiara
Justin: Nick Sidi
Helen: Fenella Woolgar
Director: Ramin Gray
Lighting: Jean Kalman
Sound: Ian Dickinson
Choreography: Hofesh Shechter
Assistant director: Hannah Eidinow
2006-04-26 12:12:50