RACING DEMON: till 19 April
RACING DEMON: David Hare
Birmingham Rep: 0121 236 4455 (in repertory with The Absence of War and Murmuring Judges)
Runs: 2h 50m till 19 April, one interval
Review: Rod Dungate, 18 March 2003
Of intellectual interest but ultimately it doesn't stack upDespite the Rep team's best efforts RACING DEMON is never more than rather interesting. Even the tortured central performance from Jack Shepherd as the Rev Lionel Espy can't free the play from a feeling that it's written by numbers.
Hare sets out to explore a Church torn apart by political strategies, conservative v liberal thinking and the tensions between a set of beliefs 2000 years old and their relevance to modern, inner city living. DEMON is a long journey to travel little distance – it feels falsley portentous which puts us off. The play falls between two stools: it's not intellectually stimulating enough to hold our attention nor are the characters, for the most part, people we can empathise with. The focus of the play is wrong if our main sympathy goes to Lionel's wife Heather – a most beautifully understated performance from Linda Broughton.
Jack Shepherd plays Lionel Espy, an inner city priest, part of a 'team'. He doesn't like to push God too hard in case it puts the people off when they come to him for help. He recognises their needs and does his poor best to help them. But his means of ministry doesn't fit with well-healed management. Shepherd's Lionel is quiet, genuine, striving for harmony with his voice barely above a whisper but ineffective. Shepherd skilfully combines these qualities in a man who twists and folds himself as if wracked by the burdens he sees and carries.
Set against this uncertainty are the dynamic forces of certainty and conviction – Rev Tony Ferris (Tony Hodgkinson) and the Bishop of Southwark (Hugh Ross). Ferris wants to spare no quarter in forwarding God's work. Despite Hodgkinson's height his commitment seems to stem from a small lost child's sudden inspiration – a child unable to see any other side to an argument. He is frightening and moves inexorably towards breakdown and madness. Ross elegantly combines upper-class effeteness with a killer instinct. The performance is excellent the character despicable.
Directors Church and Kavanaugh keep the play taut, but Hare's plot meanders into foolish byways and the play proves no more substantial than a house of cards.
Rev Lionel Espy: Jack Shepherd
Rt Rev Charlie Allen: Hugh Ross
Rev Tony Ferris: John Hodgkinson
Rev Donald Streaky Bacon: Paul Raffield
Rev Harry Henderson: Timothy Kightley
Rt Rev Gilbert Heffernan: David Phelan
Frances Parnell: Carolyn Backhouse
Stella Marr: Sara Powell
Heather Espy: Linda Broughton
Ewan Gilmour: Michael Wildman
Tommy Adair: Paul Kemp
Head Waiter/ Server: Michael Sadler
Waiter/ Server: Dominic Marsh
Servers: Sharam Gill, Stewart Harris, Christopher Penn
Directors: Jonathan Church and Rachel Kavanaugh
Design: Ruari Murchison
Lighting: Nick Beadle
Composer: Matthew Scott
Assistant Director: Toby Frow
Dialect Coach: Jeannette Nelson
2003-03-21 14:50:10