POMEGRANATE. To 13 May.
Manchester
POMEGRANATE
by Linda Marshall Griffiths
Royal Exchange Studio To 13 May 2006
Mon-Fri 7.30pm Sat 8pm Mat Thu 2.30pm & Sat 4pm
Post-show discussion 11 May
Runs 1hr 50min One interval
TICKETS: 0161 833 9833
www.royalexchange.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 4 May
How grim was her valley.
Return to the past has proved a useful dramatic formula, providing ready-made conflict and contrast. What's brought Phylis back to her small north Wales home, with its dead slate-mines lingering on as a tourist heritage attraction, is a letter from her mother. Yet the old lady does not recognise her. And Phylis faces the resentment of the daughter whose boyfriend she stole.
No-one escapes their past; Phylis ran away for a relationship that's left her emotionally bereft. The present's not much of a wow either in an enclosed, isolated place where relatives are neighbours and neighbours almost relatives. Phylis's clothes, unexceptional in a modern town, mark her out as flirty and loose in this grey slate place. Resentments fester and purposelessness turns the energy of a youngster like Harry D to violence. He's first seen mindlessly kicking a can towards one of the terraced houses which in Becky Hurst's set suggest a hillside as well as dereliction. Later, as Denise's fury with her returned mother eggs him on (he's smitten with a desire for Denise he realises will never go anywhere) he becomes a real threat to the older woman. The younger people's despoliation of her handbag exposes how near-naked Phylis is in this enclosed place.
The weight of people's past hangs over just about everyone. Only Robert faces the difficulties with the calmness of inevitability. Andy Hockley making clear his patient struggle, between the disaffected youths and his disorientated mother, while past tragedy bears down on him. And on us, as the morning of a brief scene keeps replaying, young men setting off to work on what will clearly be a fatal day.
The play's rich in themes and carefully patterned to expose its secrets, both events and relationships, gradually. As such it demands close attention. Its world is individual, for all the thematic routes it inevitably parallels. What's lacking much of the time is a sense of forward propulsion, the equivalent of the page-turning element. When the truths finally coalesce there's strong impact but it seems a long time getting there for such a shortish play.
Jo Combes' production allows it to build at its natural rate, ensuring each element is weighed so as to play its part clearly in the final assemblage. As well as Hockley, a good company includes particularly fine work from Victoria Carling as the returner who becomes determined to leave permanently and Rhys Matthews as the young man who's learned his physical strength is the only feature that will achieve him anything.
Phylis: Victoria Carling
Harry D: Rhys Matthews
Robert: Andy Hockley
Dahud: Jennifer Piercey
Denise: Lorna Lewis
Danny: Phil Rowson
Director: Jo Combes
Designer: Becky Hurst
Lighting: Tom 'Dexter' Scott
Sound: Gerry Marsden
2006-05-04 16:59:14