MY BRILLIANT DIVORCE.
London
MY BRILLIANT DIVORCE
by Geraldine Aron
Apollo Theatre
Tue-Sat 8pm Mat Sat 5pm (not 1 March)
Runs 1hr 40min No interval
TICKETS 0870 890 1101
www.rutheatres.com (booking fee for both)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 26 February
Comic kicks in an account of life after the death of marriage.Geraldine Aron's written a play and Dawn French delivers a stand-up routine. The potential clash of styles proves fruitful. Aron's script follows Angela from her husband's announcement he's off with another woman through the subsequent years: counted off 1-2-3- by fizzes of fireworks (the split came in November) and the more downbeat telling of abacus-like beads on the toy dog's push-frame.
That dog's a striking detail: Angela's sole home companion post-separation and a toy-like reminder of domesticity. And aspects of suddenly single-life in middle-age are served-up with due attention to time and contrast. There's the solicitor who knows it all as routine, the friends who can't cope with inviting Angela solo to their dinner-parties, the brief snatch-and-fumble sexual episodes.
Did the earth ever move? Some terrestrial globe swings up the skyline at the opening: perhaps the same old moon that marks the months of Angela's existence. A grey-clad figure in shapeless jumper and trousers she wanders the stage, having lost the shape and cycle of her own life, her only direction the humiliating ritual of following the marked-out queue-track in an empty post-office.
Dawn French doesn't go much for characterisation; we see her performing rather than a specific 'Angela' emerging. But – once over a few ominous moments of ingratiating responses to the audience, and several discreetly-incorporated sips of water apart – she stays true to the script.
The show's 'grip-factor' will vary with audience-members' experiences, and those of their friends. For some the whole show may be cathartic, or guilt-inducing. I found there was too much, but I wouldn't invoke the usual critical reaction to new work 'better with 20 minutes cut'. It's more that you can drift in and out of focus, fixing on what works for you.
Some may find the whole evening a life-saving, or life-refreshing, joy. Others may find it glosses over pain or underplays – till the end – the liberation factor. It would be interesting to see what performers with different performing backgrounds would make of Angela, but this doesn't deny the validity of French's performance nor the engagement to be found in Garry Hynes' lively production.
Angela: Dawn French
Director: Garry Hynes
Designer: Francis O' Connor
Lighting: Jon Buswell
Sound: Paul Arditti
Music: Paddy Cuneen
2003-03-01 13:28:02