SNUFF. To 25 November

London/Tour

SNUFF
by Davey Anderson

Theatre 503 to 4 November then tour to 25 November 2006
Tue-Sat 8pm Sun 5pm (Theatre 503)
Runs 1hr No interval

TICKETS: 020 7978 7040
www.theatre503.com (London)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 21 October

Fiercely compact drama.
Much is implied in Davey Anderson’s drama. And the playwright crams a lot into the dilapidated Glasgow high-rise room with its quadrupal locks where young Kevin has secreted himself against an unfamiliar world, which he observes through windows, can only howl at helplessly and attempts to control through videoing one-to-one interviews.

These, it’s suggested, could be the deadly type the title points to. Or not; whether Kevin’s sister Pamela, recently met by Billy and seen only on video, has become a corpse waiting in the kitchen to be sliced up, is uncertain. There’s a set of photos along the wall; each could be a victim caught on Kevin’s shelf videos. On the other hand, Billy looks at these photos without seeming to recognise his friend’s sister there.

Like the friends in Chloe Moss’ Christmas Is Miles Away, Kevin and Billy’s lives have taken different turns, Billy joining the army and fighting in Iraq, Billy staying behind, purposeless, edging towards nihilism and fearful of the foreigners being housed all round him by the coachload.

Though Billy’s fitter and a better natural fighter, he swerves towards danger in not realising how near the mental edge his former friend has reached. Shafts of old friendship intersperse Kevin’s aggression to make this a dangerous, unpredictable hour.

Leaving so much to implication is powerful, but it also limits the depth to which the characters can be taken. Short, sharp and explosive as the action is, there’s a sense of incompleteness at the end. The truth doesn’t need laying out, thriller-style, but there’s further to see into this relationship, a need to test Kevin beyond the thrill and sense of importance he gets out of the games he plays.

On Will Holt’s credibly run-down set (added to by the lads, whose punctuation, at least, is spot-on) Brian Ferguson’s fizzingly switchback Kevin contrasts the level-headed maturity of Steven Ritchie’s wider-experienced Billy. The author’s production is well-paced while catching the shifts in the relationship. Mounted by Glasgow’s Arches Theatre and revived in the National Theatre Scotland’s Unmissable Programme, this is a fiercely promising piece.

Kevin: Brian Ferguson
Billy: Steven Ritchie
Pamela: Siobhan Reilly

Director: Davey Anderson
Designer/Video: Will Holt
Lighting/Sound: Graham Sutherland

2006-10-22 23:51:27