MY BOY JACK. To 10 July.
Tour
MY BOY JACK
by David Haig
Tour to 10 July 2004
Runs 2hr 30min One interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 27 May at Oxford Playhouse
The Empire strikes back from the back of a room, from the core of the action in a finely-wrought drama.David Haig's play about Rudyard Kipling probes the conflict between ideals and the challenges of experience and suffering. At first, in the spacious room at the wealthy, established Kipling household in 1914, all seems set for a solidly-built drama. Haig goes on to subvert such expectations in parallel with the undermining of Kipling's set views.
With increasing moves from realism the room (including wall-hanging suggesting Empire toughness) serves for the Army Medical Board, is blacked out for a public speech by Kipling, then slides away to reveal the muddy contrast of the Western Front where the writer has proudly fiddled his myopic son a lieutenant's commission.
It's here Gregory Clarke's soundscape comes into full play, replacing confident orchestral music for battle fury as Young Jack (Kipling's youngest, born in 1897) discovers war is no great game. None of the family ever finds out the full cost of imperial illusions.
In act two, the Kipling home's now far from tranquil the guns of Passchandaele are heard distantly through the main scene. Time travels back to Jack and Elsie's cosy childhood adventure-stories, forward to 1933 when the aged Kipling, sitting formally with a silent, night-gowned Caroline, finds dreams of Empire finally soured as a broadcast announces the new German Reich, hymned by its orator, Goebbels. But it's the central scene, nervy and bristling with tension, which is the play's finest.
There, the impact of Kipling's all-for-Empire-and-glory ideology is worked out. And Belinda Lang is finally able to take Mrs Kipling beyond a regulation domestic personality. Lang subtly impresses with suppressed hysteria as the family searches for information on their son a slight looseness as she sits down, showing previous care over self-presentation is lessening, restrained impatience with a soldier she believes can't help their mission.
It's a fine contrast with her husband. Haig's performance employs his demonstrative style masterfully. The head juts and lowers, the face expresses feeling very slightly ahead of the words, which come as pronouncements. Concealed, congealed passion becomes evident.
Strong work from all the company, while John Dove's direction matches an increasingly edgy script with his own careful realism to strong effect in a fine piece of theatre.
Rudyard Kipling: David Haig
John Kipling: Ben Silverstone
Caroline Kipling: Belinda Lang
Col. Pottle/Guardsman Doyle/Mr Frankland: Fred Ridgeway
Major Sparks/Guardsman McHugh: Chris Moran
Elsie (Bird) Kipling: Rosanna Lavelle
Guardsman Bowe: Simon Wolfe
Young John: Charles Jaques-Guy
Young Elsie: Isabella Stargardter
Director: John Dove
Designer/Costume: Michael Taylor
Lighting: Matthew Eagland
Sound: Gregory Clarke
Associate director: Nancy Hirst
2004-05-28 18:35:36