RESISTANCE. To 30 April.
London
RESISTANCE
by Maria Oshodi
Riverside Studios Hammersmith 26 April-1 May 2005
Tue-Sat 8pm Sun 6pm Mat Wed 2pm
Runs 1hr 20min No interval
TICKETS: 020 8237 1111
www.riversidestudios.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 21 April at The Castle, Wellingborough
Growing conviction and purpose in wartime autobiography adaptation.For its opening third this is a heart-sinking experience. Designer Andrea Carr's metal tower sections give no sense of location while Maria Oshodi's story jumps all over the place. Little is clear beyond the recurring image of a Gestapo Major interrogating a young French man, Jacques, during the effective German control of Vichy France.
The central section becomes more comprehensible and exciting in its swift-moving account of Jacques' wartime Resistance work in an underground newspaper distribution chain. But it's the final section where the scurry of events takes on a deeper resonance.
My language above, without specific intention, uses words - clear', resonance' relating to sight and sound. Life is often expressed in terms of the senses (things are delicious', cool etc.). Jacques here is university Professor-to-be Jacques Lusseyrans (1924-1971) who was prevented by law from pursuing an academic career because he had become blind in a boyhood accident. The busy central part of this play contrasts his positive acceptance by the Resistance with plain denial by the government (he remained barred from higher education for 17 years after the Nazis were cleared out).
We know he survived the Nazis as we meet his older self, whose commentary initially seems a cumbersome import from Lusseyrans' autobiography (Oshodi's source). Then, thanks to the contained passion John Wilson Goddard's performance acquires, it becomes a thrilling resolution of the play's action. Lusseyran/Oshodi's account of blindness as entrance to a new relationship with the world brings the whole piece together as resistance to the sighted view' of life.
Extant Theatre, who have toured this play in association with Turtle Key Arts, consists of blind and visually-impaired performers. On stage the ones who seem blind are those playing blind characters. A stage is a controlled environment; even so the swift movement around the towers, entrances onto a sandbag-surrounded stage, the co-ordination of group images show a no-limits style. Oshodi writes that even the fragmentary opening scenes are designed to fit blind and visually-impaired audience members' manner of perception. Maybe I should have risked the accusation of being asleep on duty and closed my eyes.
The Wellingborough performance formed part of Stormin' the Castle', a week celebrating Disability Arts with visual arts, film, dance, theatre and a closing night party. The two performances I caught showed there's an audience for this work. Many theatres have signed, captioned and audio-described performances. Without creating a disability ghetto' the work of companies like Extant, Mind the Gap and Graeae offer a theatrical vocabulary that addresses audiences with disabilities (as well as mainstream' audiences). Well done Wellingborough for devising the Stormin'.
Younger Jacques: Mark Scales
Older Jacques: John Wilson Goddard
Major: Gerard McDermott
Jean/Denis: Paul Coldrick
Professor/Phillipe: Iain Charles
Francoise/Eliot: James O' Driscoll
Officdial: Brian Sandford
Director: Eileen Dillon
Designer: Andrea Carr
Lighting: Phil Supple
Composer: Adrian Lee
Choreographer: Aidan Treays
Costume: Tina Bicat
Voice coach: Ollie Campbell Smith
2005-04-24 00:43:58