SECRET HEART. To 18 January 2003.
Manchester
SECRET HEART
by David Almond adapted by Amanda Dalton
Royal Exchange Theatre To 18 January 2003
Mon-Fri 7pm Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed & Sat 3pm
Audio described/Touch tour 4 January 3pm
Runs 2hr One interval
TICKETS 0161 833 9833
Review Timothy Ramsden 14 December
It might be best to draw a veil over this one; the story of Joe Maloney comes over as pure baloney.Will we ever know how the Royal Exchange - which has just had a sensational Autumn season - came up with this show? It's a turkey no self-respecting abattoir would do business with, Christmas rush or not.
For much of the time it's unclear what's going on (OK - I could read the book. But I shouldn't have to). When events seems clear, they're too often unlikely. And when they carry any conviction they seem to bring along some dubious ideas.
Joe Maloney's being brought up by Mum. Dad's long off and neighbour Joff wants to toughen the lad up. Frankly, it wouldn't be a bad idea. Whatever Joff's rough manner, his advice - chest out, don't look down - could be the best way to discourage the usual gang of bullies.
Instead, Joe hangs around with a lad who wants to burrow like a mole and avoids school to join a passing circus. This is Hacknschmidt's troupe, and they're a rum group. Hackenschmidt himself has been sharing a dream of tigers with Joe.
Young Corinna introduces Joe to her highwire act, which might have worked wonders for the lad's self-confidence had his mother not turned up unaccountably just in time to make him drop off for the interval.
After which Corinna takes him to mystic old Nanty, whose idea of inspiriting our non-hero is to make him swallow a bone and promise to ingest a piece of her body when she's dead. Instead of choking on the one and at the prospect of the other, our Joe seems immeasurably encouraged.
After the lead bully has floored the circus strongman with a piece of leadpiping (a fate Jack Klaff's self-proclaiming mountebank had coming, for my money) the play's tiger references come to a head as Joe dons a dead tiger's skin. What this gives him - apart, possibly, from fleas - is unclear.
True he's more articulate than at the start, but any idea (it would be a dangerous one) that this makes him able to stand up for himself isn't tried out, for when the three actors playing the hard mob turn up for a picnic in Mum's garden they've become a very mild-mannered trio. This may, of course, be because they are now playing different characters, but if so who these are and what significance they have is a detail that goes unmentioned. Maybe they're just particularly polite gatecrashers.
Across the pages of a novel, it might be clear how much of all this is happening in Joe's head. Crammed into a couple of stage hours, it seems the more confusing because so much is unbelievable. We might follow a character further in our imaginations; given reality on stage, the implausibilities soon pour in.
It would be unfair to judge any actor on such a play: all try gamely to do their best for the audience. Director Wils, and designer Louise Ann, Wilson throw a theatrical panoply over the script but neither they, Jon Buswell's cunning whirls of light, nor Olly Fox's mood-enhancing score can disguise the basic problems.
Joe Malony: Ben McKay
Nanty Solo: June Broughton
Hackenschmidt: Jack Klaff
Mrs Maloney: Libby Davison
Joff/Bleak Winters: Deka Walmsley
Stanny Mole: Paul Simpson
Cody/Michael: Aidan Meech
Jug/Darren: David Galloway
Macy/Francesca: Lisa Rigby
Corinna: Asta Aighvats
Maurice: Dan Milne
Eddie: Tom Godwin
Wilfred: David ericsson
Charley Caruso: Neji Nejah
Director: Wils Wilson
Designer: Louise Ann Wilson
Lighting: Jon Buswell
Sound: Steve Brown
Composer: Olly Fox
Movement: Vanessa Gray
Circus Skills: James McPherson
Dialect: Tim Charrington
2002-12-14 18:23:04