THE CLEARING. London, Oxford To 1 June.
London/Oxford
THE CLEARING
by Helen Edmundson
Shared Experience Theatre Company at Tricycle Theatre, London To 25 May 2002
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat Sat 4pm
Then Oxford Playhouse 28 May-1 June 2002
Tue-Thur/Sat 7.30 Fri 8pm Mats Thu & Sat 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 40min One interval
TICKETS 020 7328 1000 (Tricycle)
01865 305305 (Oxford)
Review Vera Lustig 24 April
Lean, swift-paced but somehow too polite play in a patchy, stereotype-strewn production.Helen Edmundson uses a mixed marriage to explore the corrosive effects of Cromwell's depredations in 17th century Ireland. She writes in a muscular poetic idiom reminiscent of Miller's The Crucible, but less earthy: the Irish characters are given to flights of lyrical mysticism. Polly Teale's direction plays up this feyness; and Aislan McGuckin's fiery, affecting performance in the central role is ultimately too heroic: Madeleine is more flawed in the text than in the flesh. Amelda Brown, though, is perfect as a sympathetic Englishwoman: wiry, shrewd and fiercely loving.
But even Ms Brown can't penetrate the Celtic twilight. Edmundson and Teale mythologise Irish history; so all three Irish characters are young, charismatic and headstrong – no saints admittedly, but on the side of the angels; the English, on the other hand, are grizzled, pragmatic, a morally diverse bunch. And of course it's the wife who is Irish -–and represents invaded Ireland. Edmundson buys into the imperialist stereotype of Ireland as a skittish bride requiring a masterful husband, a wild-child needing the smack of firm colonisation.
Edmundson's programme note suggests that she sought contemporary resonance everywhere – except in the Irish republic. Yet around the time she was writing the play, the courts there attempted to stop a 14-year-old rape victim from leaving Ireland for an abortion. There were also revelations of the systematic institutionalisation by the Irish state of tens of thousands of women and children up till the 1970s. Widespread abuses included forced labour, semi-starvation, savage beatings and sleep deprivation.
The perpetrators and silent onlookers were the descendants of Edmundson's fearlessly defiant Irish. That beggars belief: one side of the equation must be false. The danger is that we jettison the unpalatable evidence about post-colonial Ireland in favour of the consoling myths. A play and a production that took on board those ironic symmetries would be richer, and more honest.
Sir Charles Sturman: Richard Attlee
Susaneh Winter: Amelda Brown
Solomon Winter/Appeal Judge: Pip Donaghy
Madeleina Preston: Aislin McGuckin
Killaine Farrell: Mairead McKinley
Robert Preston: Joseph Millson
Pierce Kinsellagh/Sailor/The Commissioner of Transplantation: Patrick Moy
Director: Polly Teale
Designer: Angela Davies
Lighting: Jason Taylor
Composer: Peter Salem
Movement: Leah Hausman
2002-05-23 11:14:16