OVER GARDENS OUT. To 16 April.
London
OVER GARDENS OUT
by Peter Gill
Southwark Playhouse 62 Southwark Bridge Road SE1 To 16 April 2005
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 3pm
Runs 1hr 5min No interval
TICKETS: 020 7620 3494
www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 8 April
Just one week left to catch a play that may portray a past generation but feels dramatically lithe and new.Youthful emotions in mid-century Cardiff and a gay relationship occupied Peter Gill's 2 recent one-acters at Battersea's Theatre 503. Now (with a move eastwards by 503 actor Phillip Joseph) comes The Motion Group's revival of Gill's 1969 play. Both themes lie within it, swiftly yet elusively developed.
At the centre is Dennis (Ryan Sampson in an excellent portrayal of quiet teenage frustration). His Dad's brisk and emotionally remote from his son. Meanwhile, Dennis teases Mum while secretly intrigued by her feminine existence. The more the hair and lipstick fascinate, the more he fights resentfully against her treating him as a child.
Both Gill's script and a mesmerising production by Andrew Steggall achieve the feat of making Dennis's tedious existence fascinating. Characters are revealed as lines of washing are removed in stages, replacing cleanness and order with the messiness of daily life. The space becomes fluidly a home, shop or park as Dennis and his friend Jeffrey fill the lonely hours.
English Jeffery's a rough, assured companion for the nervous Dennis. After a troubled past (in his case being sent away to school at 12 doesn't mean an elite education) Jeffery's lodging with a landlady and a baby that brings out his underlying uncertainty and the possibility of affection. Attracted to danger, he takes Dennis teetering on high edges, and has a leaning to destruction; a silence automatically gets filled with a thump or a dare to cruelty. Jeremy Joyce captures the nearly-sweet features of someone whose boyish banter eventually reveals awareness of his companion's sexual identity.
The other key performance is Dido Miles' as the mother Dennis fears is dying. As with many details, we're left uncertain whether Dennis is melodramatising her tiredness and ill-health or whether Dad's imaginative myopia makes him complacent about his wife's health. Miles rightly leaves the options open. Previously she's moved between annoyance at Dennis's childish ability to spoil things for her and a weary, though genuine affection - something absent from the brisk relationship with her husband.
This is a fine, rich, quietly dynamic piece, beautifully paced and structured in a shrewd, sympathetic revival.
Mrs B: Jacqueline Davis
Jeffrey: Jeremy Joyce
Mother: Dido Miles
Dennis: Ryan Sampson
Father : Phillip Joseph
Assistant: Guy Lewis
Director: Andrew Steggall
Designer: Tom Curtis
Lighting: Anna Watson
Sound: Sarah Weltman
Movement: Jael Loewenstein
Dialect: Neil Swain
2005-04-09 00:46:57