PATIENCE. To 29 January.

London

PATIENCE
by Jason Sherman

Finborough Theatre To 29 January 2005
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Sun 3.30pm
Runs 2hr 30min One interval

TICKETS: 020 7373 3842
www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 8 January

Canada provides an impressive start to the Finborough's year.Science is in the theatrical air these days. Canadian playwright Jason Sherman hauls into his story of love and infidelity not only Heisenberg's uncertainty principle (explored in Michael Frayn's Copenhagen) but Chaos Theory too. This asserts that a butterfly's wing-flap can cause major climatic disturbances. There are reports of flapping butterflies sprinkled through Sherman's play.

The Uncertainty Principle means you can never ultimately nail anything down. And when businessman Reuben's world collapses that's how he finds himself, his chaos being traced to an adulterous butterfly kiss. The play begins punchily with that colleague-bonding game squash, swiftly switching to Reuben's high-nerve driving for an exotic night-meal with a colleague.

But he's soon to be deserted at home and work, moving via a conversation with a dead friend (first sign of the world around bearing on his anxieties) into the strange world of anomie. By the mid-point he's no longer the breezy chat-man at the wheel, but a silent, introverted passenger.

Though his world's centred on communications - he congratulates himself on adopting the arch-contemplative Buddha as a mobile phone brand-name Reuben's soon drifting between relationships. Amid the brief, busy scenes only a chance meeting (at an airport) with his ex-wife has him sit still and learn about himself.

Yet there's a gravitational pull too, as he's drawn back to the all-important kiss. This tension gives the play its fascination, taking it beyond yet another portrait of urban breakdown. It leaves Reuben contemplating a jump from a high window, but held back by the scent of hope.

Sherman has the ability, shared by fellow Canadian playwright Brad Fraser, to imbue his filmically swift scenes with a texture rich enough for theatre. And he gives a fine sense of a familiar world grown suddenly eerie, as in a bar where the conversations all around reflect on Reuben's thoughts, or where an unconventional Rabbi draws him into a Kaddish leading to a re-meet with his old flame.

Adam Barnard's production uses the Finborough's intimacy to intensify the sense of strangeness. It's well-acted around Geoffrey Towers' fine portrait of a perplexed, troubled and confused Reuben.

Reuben: Geoffrey Towers
Peter/Phil/Man in Restaurant: Chris Andrew Mellon
Paul/Rabbi/Mike/Accountant/ Man in Street/Man on Cell Phone/Man in Restaurant: Russell Bentley
Donna/Frank/Woman in Restaurant: Mufrida Hayes
Sarah: Sandy Walsh
Liz/Pianist: Nicola Herring

Director: Adam Barnard
Designer: Vicki Fifield
Lighting: John Harris
Music: Peter Michaels

2005-01-10 01:00:51