PAINS OF YOUTH: till 20 October

Coventry
PAINS OF YOUTH: Ferdinand Bruckner.
Belgrade, B2. www.belgrade.co.uk; 024 7655 3055
Runs: 1h 50m, no interval, till 20 October.
Review: Rod Dungate, 2 October 2007.

Bleak and exhilarating in equal measures; great opening for B2.

Hamish Glen opened his refurbished main house with the bold choice Mr Puntilo; he opens his brand-spanking new (and much to be welcomed) studio space with the even bolder PAINS OF YOUTH. Gadi Roll’s directorial debut at the Belgrade is vigorous and intense; it’s not perfect but it’s exhilarating.

Direction, design, acting, all aspects of the production in fact, come together to create an event that doesn’t feel English; that feels as if it stems from Europe. Bruckner wrote the play in Vienna in 1926 so the Belgrade’s production feels extraordinarily ‘whole’. (Bruckner was a secret writing name – under his real name, Bruckner ran a theatre and turned his own play down!)

PAINS OF YOUTH examines a group of young professional people trying to get to grips with life and love. In the centre of it is Desiree; she’s like a life-force figure, but one in which all the energy has turned in on itself. Her constant cries are Don’t leave me! Help me! Murder me! Her lover is Marie, but love turns to disillusion, it crumbles, it has no strength. Among other desperate characters is Petrell, an urbane drunkard, who holds all in his power. Bruckner offers us little joy in the play, it’s a dark and hopeless world – Who is God? is the question.

Roni Toren, who designs, has taken the cruel, almost supra-naturalism, of the play and designed a set to match. Marie’s room is in two parts but as the intense relationships in the play become more and more difficult, so half of Marie’s room slowly rises. As the character’s obstacles become greater, so does the obstacle of the set become more difficult to negotiate. A thrilling visual metaphor.

Sally Leonard’s Desiree, played for the most part at fever pitch, is unbearably raw, her pain clearly on show for all and as clearly no resolution in sight. Ruth Everett plays Marie, she perfectly matches Leonard’s desperation, but it’s never (quite rightly) so intense.

Roll’s production is strong and passionate. However there is, at this moment, a serious flaw which I hope he can address. Roll paces his production well and at times it moves with a feverish pace. Here’s the problem, meaning has been sacrificed for speed; when moving fast lines are unsupported with truth and we can’t understand them. If Roll can attend to this, his exciting production will approach, I sense, mind-blowing.

Petrell: Charlie Anson
Lucy: Lucy Briggs-Owen
Alt: John Cummins
Marie: Ruth Everett
Desiree: Sally Leonard
Freder: Jack Sandle
Irene: Victoria Yeates

Director: Gadi Roll
Designer: Roni Toren
Lighting Designer: Mark Howland
Costume Designer: Monika Nisbet
Casting Director: Camilla Evans

2007-10-03 09:52:46