TEJAS VERDES. To 5 February; 7-26 March.
London
TEJAS VERDES
by Fermin Cabal translated by Robert Shaw
Gate Theatre To 5 February 2005
Mon-Sat 7.30pm 30 January 6pm no performance 29 January
Runs 1hr 15min No interval
TICKETS: 020 7229 0706
boxoffice@gatetheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 22 January
Quiet, calm recounting of political oppression distorting human values one that's frightening yet still, lyrically, affirms faith in human nature.Past bundles of documents and funereal name-plates into a forest of earth and wood, lit only by torches; this is the entry to the world of Chilean hotel turned torture-prison Green Gables' Tejas Verdes' during General Pinochet's military dictatorship.
Spanish political dramatist Fermin Cabal tracks his way through the (presumably fictional) story of a disappeared' the 3,000 political prisoners whose captivities the regime never acknowledged. Cabal's form seems simple, seven end-on women's monologues. But they track back and forward, offering different perspectives for our understanding. His disappeared' is a young woman Colorina (goldfinch), her first words about us not listening and her family praying for her only later achieving full meaning. And the prison doctor's argument for Pinochet as Chile's saviour from social(ist) chaos is undermined when her role in Colorina's captivity is later betrayed' by the Informer.
Cabal's most complex character is Colorina's friend and betrayer (subtly played by Diana Hardcastle) whose seduction into betrayal implies a whole Graham Greene plot, with frighteningly graphic detail added, showing how human nature can be subverted.
By making his disappeared an innocent, rather than a terrorist, Cabal guides audience sympathies. As does director Thea Sharrock in casting Shereen Martineau (a fine Viola in the West End's recent Asian Twelfth Night). In this promenade production actors can be less than an arm's length away; at such closest quarters Martineau, without the slightest note of falsification, provides a vibrant expression of human joy and loss.
Her fingers open joyously to the world she's lost, as the Informer's nervously worry at her jumper or the Doctor's argue with nervous defiance. Then, dead centre, there's Gemma Jones' magnificent, weather-beaten gravedigger, every tone and muscle invoking a hard working-life and endurance of rain, wind or security forces.
The production also guides political sympathies through responses to actors' personalities the sharp-mannered doctor, the unctuous Pinochet lawyer equally offputting, the others invoking sympathy. It's a danger in political theatre. Yet, if it weren't for an exit sign I'd have lost my bearings completely after following the action around in the gloom. Which, presumably, is the point of Sharrock's staging.
The Disappeared/The Soul in Torment: Shereen Martineau
The Friend/The Informer: Diana Hardcastle
The Doctor: Emer Gillespie
The Gravedigger: Gemma Jones (Anna Calder-Marshall March Performances)
The Lawyer: Lou Gish (Hattie Ledbury March performances)
Director: Thea Sharrock
Designer: Dick Bird
Lighting: Mark Jonathan
Sound: Adrienne Quartly
Assistant director: Simon Breden
Assistant designer: James Cotterill
2005-01-23 22:11:54