NEVILLE'S ISLAND. To 17 July.

Oldham

NEVILLE'S ISLAND
by Tim Firth

Coliseum Theatre to 17 July 2004
Tue-Thu, Sat 7.30pm Fri 8pm Mat 10 July 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 40min One interval

TICKETS: 0161 624 2829
www.coliseum.org
Review: Timothy Ramsden 26 June

Beautiful-looking, finely-acted production provides a fresh view of a much-produced play.High standards in production and performance have been the norm this season at the Coliseum. This final production is an exception only in one sense. If anything, Richard Foxton's set, turning a small isle in the middle of the Lake District's Derwentwater into a Devil's Island jungle and swamp, trumps even the fine sets seen in recent productions.

Phil Davis, the Coliseum's regular man on lanterns and gels, gives a lurid, sinister mix of glare and dark to the place where bonding businessmen fall apart, their supposed team spirit breaking down into individualised chaos.

These men are marooned as thoroughly as any Robinson Crusoe. The sudden eruptions of glare and noise from night-trippers and firework celebrations in nearby Keswick are boldly emphasised as coming from the auditorium, remote from the world of the stage.

Though there are laughs to be had, the mood of Kevin Shaw's perceptive production becomes increasingly dark. Four strong performances emphasise the individual natures on this team-task weekend. James Nickerson's Neville, the titular captain, starts self-certain before disappearing apologetically up his own inadequacies: cast as Hamlet, revealed as a Rosencrantz.

Martin Reeve's Gordon, the angry middle-aged man, reigns back on the splenetic destructiveness Russell Dixon gave the character in the Scarborough premiere. It makes him less clearly open to the others' comments on his empty life. Yet, in becoming less of a monster, he plays a more balanced part within the play's structure of contrasting personalities.

Casting a British Asian actor as Angus brings a new light to the character. Angus is the nerd, who has spent a fortune on inapposite or ill-used equipment. He's also the one who finds himself a prisoner of his middle-class reserve - there's a very funny speech when he imagines how a similarly-minded bird of prey might fare. Presenting him - and Parvez Qadir does so with finely-controlled, growing self-questioning - as someone who has assimilated such class values from outside makes him more a prisoner of the mindset, clarifying the social type.

Roy may well be the most difficult part to play, moving from initial apparent placidity through revelations of nervous and spiritual crises. The excellent Christopher Wright, a fine actor who has enhanced productions throughout northern England, brings tactful calm yet suggestions of deep intensity to the role, in this all-round outstanding production.

Neville: James Nickerson
Angus: Parvez Qadir
Gordon: Martin Reeve
Roy: Christopher Wright

Director: Kevin Shaw
Designer: Richard Foxton
Lighting: Phil Davis
Sound: Daniel Ogden

2004-06-27 17:15:08