THE COFFEE HOUSE: till 24 August
Chichester
THE COFFEE HOUSE
by Rainer Werner Fassbinder translated by Jeremy Same
Minerva Theatre In rep to 24 August 2003
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Sat & 7,13,14,20,21 August 2.15pm Sun 4.15pm
Runs 2hr One interval
TICKETS: 01243 781312: www.cft.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden: 28 07 2003
Fassbinder's realisation of Goldoni isn't easy-going, but it's viciously forceful and well worth rediscovery, especially in such a clear production.
A shining floor suggesting watery reflection; two gauzes resembling classical columns, between three jetty-like platforms. Yes, this is another gondola grabbed around Chichester's season theme of Venice: 20th century playwright and film director Fassbinder's re-working of an 18th century original, Carlo Goldoni's Venetian-set comedy La bottega del café.
But the stage, filled too with coffee-house tables, soon loses its orderliness. Characters are glimpsed behind the gauzes - Eugenio losing his fortune in the nearby gaming-house, Lisaura seductively posing - and behind the audience where Eugenio's wife Vittoria emerges looking for him and the earrings he's pawned.
At first, Fassbinder seems to offer a straight translation. But passions start clutching, tearing away the light surface Sex and money take hold; characters greedily succumb to selfish passions. Sex-for-money Lisaaura becomes a role-model for initially prim Vittoria, whose body Pandolfo wants for his gaming-house. And while he owes the state money, they'll turn a blind eye so he can keep coining it in.
Any reference - there are plenty to a cash amount produces instant currency conversion into dollars, marks and pounds. As a running joke it soon limps, but stumbles on to reinforce how money's become the key to a commodified society, where a filled purse promises fulfilled desires.
Simona Gonella's production has a restlessness which fits this bill, recalling Goldoni's (uneasy) relationship with Italian popular comedy. In this topsy-turvy world café-owner Ridoli (a camped-up Stephen Ventura) is sent at beck-and-call while his worker Trappolo (Barry McCarthy a grumbling, shuffling old moral centre amid youth's escapades) acts as others' adviser.
Generally, physicality works better than vocal flexibility. Vincent Brimble's indebted gambling chief and John Marquez's fake noble are uncharacteristically stiff-voiced while Paul Bentall's sole-of-respectability conman and Jamie Parker's wastrel stay within a narrow palette.
But Noma Dumezweni, as a deserted wife on the hunt for her husband has vocal and physical command. With supple strength she presents the character's vulnerability and assertiveness in a performance that surely has several Shakespearean heroines beckoning.
Don Marzio: Paul Bentall
Eugenio: Jamie Parker
Count Leander: John Marquez
Trappolo: Barry McCarthy
Ridolfo: Stephen Ventura
Pandolfo: Vincent Brimble
Lisaura: Dido Miles
Virroria: Liza Pulman
Placida: Noma Dumezweni
Director: Simona Gonella
Designer: Grea Cuneo
Lighting: Jon Buswell
Sound: Fergus O' Hare
Assistant Director: Emma Ashby
Season Installation Designer: Ashley Martin-Davis
2003-07-30 09:02:33