THE ACCRINGTON PALS. Chichester to 9 February.

Chichester

THE ACCRINGTON PALS
by Peter Whelan

Minerva Theatre To 9 February 2002
Runs 3hr One interval

TICKETS 01243 781312
Review Timothy Ramsden 26 January

A fine revival confirms Whelan's Great War play as a modern classic.Despite his title, Whelan focuses less on the battalion of Accrington lads who went to war than on the women who didn't. You can't say these folk were 'left behind', for where they are is the centre of energy.

From the start Kemp plays on the two locations, military and social battle zones respectively. What seems a trench soldier turns out to be not any old Tommy Atkins but poetic young Tom, setting up his stall early morning to sell fruit and veg. in Lancashire. He's about to set off to a war that will change – and end – his life, for he sees a new society, not dependent upon money, in the army.

In contrast, there's the vigorous May, for whom war means shortages and another halfpenny on the carrots. And Tom's place at the stall is taken by his friend's sweetheart Eva. She's a shy thing to begin with, but Katherine Kelly charts her growing confidence as she moves in with May and develops her own view of the world. Kelly encapsulates a terrifying intensity of loss as her hands sculpt the imaginary body of her dead love in the tin bath where once she'd scrubbed his back.

In such a play it's fitting the women should give the stronger performances. Karen Henthorn's Annie is revealed as more than a termagant as her self-reliance in a hard life becomes visible, along with a vulnerability behind the lashing out.

Amy Robbins' May is a hard act to follow. Technically accomplished, at times very powerful, it can also become a private affair, demanding the close-up focus of lens and microphone. It's not a matter of seeing or hearing, but of how detail is projected.

Set and lighting allow both tight domestic scenes and, as the paving becomes more distant upstage and starts to seem like trench duckboarding, an epic sense of battle. It's most moving in the final, non-realistic meeting of May and the dead Tom in the presence of Joseph Alessi's always – and rightly – slightly unreal non-com.

Kemp's clear and strongly charged production is a fine addition to this exciting inaugural Minerva winter season of in-house productions.

Tom: Richard Glaves
May: Amy Robbins
Arthur Boggis: Bruce McGregor
Reggie Boggis: Samuel Barnett
Ralph: Luke Jardine
Eva: Katherine Kelly
Annie Boggis: Karen Henthorn
Sarah: Jane Cameron
Bertha: Megan Whelan
CSM Rivers: Joseph Alessi

Director: Edward Kemp
Designer: Jane Heather
Lighting: Jon Buswell
Sound: Gareth Fry

2002-02-01 00:45:41