PASSING PLACES. To 18 October.
Pitlochry
PASSING PLACES
by Stephen Greenhorn.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre In rep to 18 October 2007.
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat 12 Sept 2pm.
Audio-described: enquire when booking.
Post-show talk 12 Oct 2pm
Runs 2hr 15min One interval.
TICKETS: 01796 484626.
www.pitlochry.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 22 August.
A play that seems stronger on each viewing has the staging it deserves.
Ken Harrison's revival of this 1997 theatrical 'road movie' may turn out the highlight of the 2007 Pitlochry season. It has ace performances from Callum O'Neil and Steven Rae as the friends who escape from Motherwell to Thurso. Troubled Alex's dull-witted manner contrasts Brian, who takes refuge in libraries to feed an appetite for disconnected facts in compensation for his life outside.
Both flee the revenge of their boss Binks, who blames them when his dodgy sportswear shop gets robbed. Playwright Stephen Greenhorn traces their path across Scotland in a deadbeat Lada, from their depressed home to Thurso where they hope to sell Binks' prize surfboard. It's a journey too of self-discovery, reflected in new friends, who find other values in Scotland. Yet Greenhorn emphasises this is not romantic Caledonian dreaming; landscapes are repeatedly described as despoiled, ripped-apart or inherently uninteresting.
Intercut with the pair's widening appreciation of life are brief scenes showing Binks' violent pursuit. The sight of established Pitlochry favourite Martyn James in biking leathers is enough for the play's "strong language" to lose its potential offensiveness with audiences for whom switching-off mobile 'phones is a less pertinent activity than keeping hearing-aids under control. And the murderous Binks' comic side is emphasised by James and Alexander.
The central pair provide cohesion through the multi-scene action, with O'Neil's Callum driving, only slowly losing hs short-tempered fuse as he meets people with more relaxed approaches to life, and Rae's Brian pouring out his store of knowledge with naive eagerness till late in the journey he realises he doesn't want to return.
There's fine work too from Joanne Cummins, unaffectedly natural as the happy Mirren (her name linking back to industral Scotland through her football-loving dad), and Elizabeth Nestor as her friend Iona, with Greg Powrie suitably relaxed and confident as an engineer with an artistic bent.
But the final impact comes from Charles Cusick Smith's fine set. With curtains (unusually for Pitlochry) open at the start on a confined space with brutalist arch, inventively revealing car-seats in its floor, it provides a fittingly deeper perspective once the journey begins. Finally, with the smoothness of a camera shutter, all barriers sweep away on a landscape as open as the protagonists' minds have now become.
Alex: Callum O'Neil.
Brian: Steven Rae.
Binks: Martyn James.
Alex's Mum: Carol Ann Crawford.
Mirren: Joanne Cummins.
Diesel: Greg Powrie.
Iona: Elizabeth Nestor.
Tom: Crawford Logan.
Director: Ken Alexander.
Designer/Costume: Charles Cusick Smith.
Lighting: Ace McCarron.
Sound: Ronnie McConnell.
Fight director: Raymond Short.
2007-08-24 11:28:35