PASSION. To 20 April.

London

PASSION
by Tony Craze

Chelsea Theatre To 20 April 2002
Mon-Sat 8pm
Runs 1hr 10min No interval

TICKETS 020 7352 1967
Review Timothy Ramsden 30 March

Despite its title, a curiously cautious occasion.A play can relate to many things but rarely its own box office number. Yet 1967, time of the Six Day War in Palestine and student agitation in Europe, when Bill was a young English radical, echoes behind this lovers' encounter.

Their affair, begun in London, now culminates in Hanna's flat in Palestine. She's a researcher, and a lot younger than Bill – though Andrew Hall's character looks remarkably well-preserved for someone in his fifties.

Between clumsy radio announcements the two debate their relationship and the causes they love, both brought to a head by Bill's impending interview with Yasser Arafat. This isn't a play that asks us to leave our intelligence at the cloakroom (just as well, seeing the smartly redesigned Chelsea doesn't have one). But to see Passion, which supposes an imminent Arafat/Sharon peace deal, on the day when, in reality, Israeli soldiers were depriving the Palestinian leader of water, electricity and landline, asks for a lot of baggage to be deposited somewhere.

Which might not matter if the play were more forceful. Hanna complains that, under Israeli or Arafat, her state would be a puppet, with America's $3 billion calling the moves. Yet despite some game attempts by both performers, neither character ever cuts the strings with which Craze clearly manipulates them to deliver his points,

Malcolm Sutherland's uncharacteristically lifeless production offers an almost wilfully passionless dispute – hard to believe these two have popped in for a cup of sugar when they were visiting, let alone slept and shared secrets together.

Not that they have shared that many; he suddenly drops into the talk that he's divorcing his English wife, while Hanna, after spending half the play trying to persuade Bill not to meet Arafat, then seeks to exploit him as an involuntary suicide bomber.

There's clearly a debate to be had on how much an outsider can truly enter another land's quarrels and an update on the old matter of conflicting personal and political allegiances, but it needs to be more convincing in script and production to hit home.

Hanna: Karina Fernandez
Bill: Andrew Hall

Director: Malcolm Sutherland
Designer: Lisa Lillywhite
Lighting: Philip Gladwell
Sound: Marco Centore

2002-03-31 08:07:44