THE BEAVER COAT. To 15 July.
London
THE BEAVER COAT
by Gerhart Hauptmann new version by Christopher Rolls
Finborough Theatre Finborough Pub 118 Finborough Road SW10 9ED To 15 July 2006
Runs 1hr 30min No interval
TICKETS: 0870 4000 838 (24 hr)
www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 14 July
Social picture fur-wrapped in comedy.
Ideas of money-laundering become almost literal in the case of Gerhart Hauptmann’s Frau Wolff, the ever-reliable, hard-working washer-woman in this 1893 comedy. Unlike her stolid worker-husband, Frau Wolff is entrepreneurial, planning to add to her various side-industries by investing in home extensions to accommodate summer visitors.
For that she needs money, and a pile of logs belonging to the rich neighbour who’s been slave-driving one of the Frau’s daughters as his servant, will fetch a tidy sum. Meanwhile the bargee who fences the livestock that come Frau Wolff’s way (dead) could improve his health with the title coat, belonging to the same old Kruger.
Events switch between the Wolff’s lair, where Frau W keeps on top of things, and the police station where a dozy bailiff, a sharp-mannered but empty-headed constable and an impatient superintendent never get on top of anything. The superintendent objects to his other title, Baron, being used in office-hours, but his class-based view of the job’s clear as he misses evidence of theft under his nose, misjudges the criminals he has in front of him and focuses only on late 19th century Prussia’s version of ‘reds-under-the-bed’ scares.
The comedy is muffled in Christopher Rolls’ enterprising revival (another repertoire feather in the Finborough cap) by the variety of playing styles it allows officialdom, from David Birrell’s haunted superintendent, through Jot Davies’ constable, better for his physical darting and intense stares than an unpredictable vocal delivery, to Mike Aherne’s dozy-yokel bailiff.
But Rolls orchestrates the final point well enough. In this he’s aided by Joanna Bacon’s shrewd, insistent and plausible Frau Wolff. With her daughters, Suzanne Heathcote’s Leontine sullenly rebellious at her treatment by Kruger and Stephanie Thomas’ Adelheide mixing youthful desires with chip-off-the-old-(maternal)-block craft, Bacon is the finest part of this insufferable village. She does well by both her daughters, as she shows herself able to haggle with David Brett’s sly, shifty Wulkow.
And when, in the final minute, Wehrhahn seems to enlist her in his obsessive crusade against liberals and radicals, there’s the sighting of a combustible mix of prejudice and craft. For, 40 years on…
Leontine/Frau Motes: Suzanne Heathcote
Frau Wolff: Joanna Bacon
Julius Wolff: Charlie Buckland
Adelheid: Stephanie Thomas
Wulkow: David Brett
Motes: Anthony Keech
Mittledorf: Mike Aherne
Glasenapp: Jot Davies
Wehrhahn: David Birrell
Kruger: Roger Braban
Dr Fleischer: John Cummins
Director: Christopher Rolls
Designer: Aaron Marsden
Lighting: David Plater
Sound: Mercedes Maresca
Assistant director: Thorsten Zerha
2006-07-15 12:05:36