THE CRYSTAL DEN. To 14 April.
London
THE CRYSTAL DEN
by Marion Baraitser
New End Theatre To 14 April 2002
Tue-Sat 7.30 Sat & Sun 3.30pm
Runs 2hr 10min One interval
TICKETS 020 7794 0022
Review Timothy Ramsden 24 March
A complex of emotions afflict Marx's daughter in an intriguing, well-acted play.What did Karl Marx's daughter do with her inheritance? She fell in love with a no-good Socialist called Edward Aveling; they lived unmarried in a Sydenham property bought with an inheritance from Friedrich Engels. Situated near Crystal Palace and fitted with the new electric light, it became their crystal den – though no cosy nook.
Aveling was soon off elsewhere for nooky with a young actress who demanded marriage. He repeatedly extracted money from the long, and greatly, suffering Eleanor. This Marx and spender situation worsened when she handed over her father's royalties and took poison with Aveling's connivance.
Marion Baraitser focuses on Eleanor's love, loss and longing more than her politics. Characters whirl about her but cannot help. Jewish playwright Israel Zangwill lightens her afternoons with talk and song, and the two contrive a play The Doll's House Repaired – a curious satire mirroring Eleanor's predicament, its point not lost on Aveling in his drawing-room rendition.(he can't have been paying attention in rehearsals).
But Zangwill can only divert, while the serious-minded writer Olive Schreiner, a potential feminist help, stays curiously distant. She appears initially in separated monologues which Sonia Ritter's otherwise fluent production further marginalises by placing them in a stage corner.
Aveling seems a committed anarcho-spongerlist; it's a pity there isn't a little good found in him, if only to make Eleanor's intense infatuation more sympathetic. We have to take her love on trust, though there's great help in Judith Paris's committed performance. Pleading, her corseted body repeatedly shocked into the need for alert decisions, she finds resolution when, Aveling having walked past her outstretched arms to leave a forwarding address, she gives up on life. The long, late silences as her decisions form are held with great concentration.
It's a strong acting company all round – if only such were always found around the London Fringe. Once again, Nicolae Hart Hansen maximises New End's small stage, turning the space blood-red and womb-like while piles of messily stacked books at the back remind of the intellectual life neglected owing to sexual needs and agonies.
Eleanor Marx: Judith Paris
Olive Schreiner: Pauline Munro
Edward Aveling: Steve Swinscoe
Eva Frye: Maxine Gregory
Maid/Musician: Tamsin Lewis
Freddy Demuth: Michael McMurray
Harry Demuth: James Rayment
Gertie: Laura Hayes
Israel Zangwill: Robin Samson
Director: Sonia Ritter
Designer: Nicolai Hart Hansen
Lighting: Ben M. Rogers
2002-03-24 21:21:44