SMALL CHANGE. To 31 May.

London.

SMALL CHANGE
by Peter Gill.

Donmar Warehouse To 31 May 2008.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Thu & Sat 2.30pm.
Audio-described 10 May 2.30pm (+ Touch Tour 1.30pm).
BSL Signed 19 May.
Captioned 15 May 7.30pm.
Runs 2hr One interval.

TICKETS: 0870 060 6624 (no booking fee).
www.donmarwarehouse.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 19 April.

Small change maybe but these are lives worth living.
Don’t be fooled by the publicity photo for Peter Gill’s revival of his 1976 play, with children playing between ramshackle housing and an urban stretch of water in a post-war Cardiff where local landmarks are being bulldozed away.

For Gill demands simply four chairs on a stage made stark red by Hugh Vanstone’s lighting. It’s all the play needs. Some audience members tried to decide exactly who had done what with whom and when. It’s a demanding task, but while you’re watching Gill gives the sense of understanding childhood emotions and their enduring impact into adulthood.

His first act focuses on mothers and sons, in a world where fathers are effectively absent. Though his method throws emphasis almost entirely on words, which flow seamlessly between moments of talk between characters and passages of memories spoken to the audience, or the air, this is a resoundingly, if austerely, theatrical piece. The positioning of chairs, at first so no-one’s looking at anyone else as they sit, each in their own existence, is important.

So is movement as a mother chases her son, who enjoys his moment’s playful rebellion. Or the two boys', whose intensity of relationship becomes fully clear in the second act. Sometimes they call to each other as they might in the street, asking if they can play, having to go in at mother’s command. At other times they sit, in their own worlds, asking brief questions, their faces staring ahead within inches of each other, making an interior connection across miles or years.

There’s youthful energy in both but a sense of ambition that fits Vincent’s getting away to sea. And the mothers contrast: Sue Johnston’s Mrs Harte, a frown engrained on her face by life, and Lindsey Coulson’s Mrs Driscoll, meeting mounting despair with a slight, anxious smile. For much of the second act, they are turned away, or lie on the floor, their chairs overturned, dead. But they rise for the last scenes, influences still on their sons.

Each detail builds a picture through the minimalist staging, forming a picture of hard existences and human endurance.

Gerard: Matt Ryan.
Mrs Harte: Sue Johnston.
Vincent: Luke Evans.
Mrs Driscoll: Lindsey Coulson.

Director: Peter Gill.
Designer: Anthony Ward.
Lighting: Hugh Vanstone.

2008-04-21 13:20:18