STALLERHOF. To 21 January.

London

STALLERHOF
by Franz Xavier Kroetz translated by Katharina Hehn

Southwark Playhouse To 21 January 2006
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 21 Jan 3pm
Runs 1hr 5min No interval

TICKETS: 08700 601761
www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 7 January

Strong revival of a play that’s still remarkable.
If Franz Xavier Kroetz’s play no longer seems extraordinary, that’s a sign of its influence. Back in 1972 its presentation of inexpressive characters without overt authorial comment forced audiences into close proximity with events that were mundane. And somehow remained so even when horrific things happened. If Maria Ahlberg’s generally fine revival has a limitation it’s that the quietly assertive staging, with its lighting-snap scene shifts and audience seated in an L-shape, making some events close-up, others remote, has a consciously theatrical terseness that’s hardly necessary as events round the Stallers’ place, out in a rural location of eternal work and isolation, take their slow, relentless course.

No-one speaks what they feel, nor gives any sense of wishing to articulate feelings. Mrs Staller’s way with her child-minded teenage daughter is to hit her when she makes mistakes reading a postcard. It’s not cruelty, but her way of coping with the girl. Young Beppi accepts it as life, as she does when a visit to the fair with casual labourer Sepp leads to a sexual assault. So it goes on, being life, as Beppi’s Mother prepares a bowl of soapy water to abort the resulting foetus, then starts scrubbing the floor furiously with it instead. Faced with her daughter’s naked body she can’t go ahead, hard work being an excuse to cut out explanations.

And Staller’s revenge on the creature Sepp most loves is unspoken; there are no recriminations as Staller goes on sharpening his hoe. Kroetz explores these people with a remorseless acuity and purity that few of his followers manage, with no trace of sensationalism or deliberate underplaying. Matti Houghton could still internalise Beppi’s endurance further – there are some conscious facial expressions – but she successfully presents a passive picture of vulnerability assaulted at the one point when life has spiralled momentarily from its circles of expected repetition.

Roger Ringrose, inexpressively expressive in daily work, in the outing with Matti and in his own grief, plus Alwyne Taylor and Michael Gunn as the parents who turn up with lifelike haphazardness in the play, are excellent.

Staller: Michael Gunn
Stallerin: Alwyne Taylor
Beppi: Matti Houghton
Sepp: Roger Ringrose
Sepp’s Dog: Monty

Director: Maria Ahlberg
Designer: Naomi Dawson
Lighting: David Holmes
Sound: Carolyn Downing
Assistant director: Anna Holmfeld
Assistant lighting: Richard Howell

2006-01-10 04:38:25