THE DECIDERS. To 8 February.

London

THE DECIDERS
by Roger Irvin Dunn

Rosemary Branch Theatre To 8 February 2004
Tue-Sat 8pm Sun 4pm
Runs 1hr No interval

TICKETS: 020 7704 6665
Review: Timothy Ramsden 23 January

Aptly-named venue for this play; it's branch-line drama rather than inter-city but a pleasant-enough trundle on a scenic narrative route.The Deciders was devised by performer Mark Montgomerie with writer, director, lighting designer, co-designer, co-producer, alternative sound-track maker (bit of a mystery that one) and bit-part player Roger Irvin Dunn. I hope I've not missed out any of Mr Dunn's contribution to this hour-long, essentially two-hander.

Devised pieces usually call on their participants' life experiences. Not too closely here, let's hope, given the high-rise gangland background. Scenes have their own tension; what happens between them is pure murder. Rob Pomfret's Ian begins dabbling nervously on the fringes of crime, largely in people's pockets. He gradually changes after Montgomerie's smoothly confident younger son of a serious gangland family sees potential in him though it's never obvious this small-time crook would seem able to wipe out London's toughest hitmen.

Behind the action a multi-million robbery's thrown in to set the scale lies a number of values; the chiefest is a variant on the old human jungle one of who gets to eat and who gets to be eaten. Only, here it's decision-time: who makes decisions, who does as they're told, and what happens when someone moves from one category to the other.
It's not quite that simple; smoothly confident as he seems, Little Johnny's full of resentments and sentiment about his dear old criminal-mastermind dad.

Script and performances just about hold willing incredulity at bay for the hour, though if you like your crime full of action, sound and fury you're better off with the same kind of thing on TV. Here, there's a focus on character interplay, and a comic edge drinking in the Hangman's Noose' pub, Johnny spying on Ian as they talk on mobile phones. As in much devised drama, the actors inhabit their characters easily; too easily at times the sense of character challenging performers is missing.

It all fits neatly into the Rosemary Branch's dark oblong. There are rural and cityscape scenes - London's giant gherkin included replaced by a black curtain as the relationship grows darker. The end's a bit of a cop-out, firepower replacing a tougher decision on the balance of psychological forces.

Little Johnny: Mark Montgomerie
Ian: Rob Pomfret
Man in Bar: Roger Irvin Dunn

Director/Lighting: Roger Irvin Dunn
Designers: Andrea Carr (ARTLAB inc.), Roger Irvin Dunn
Sound: Mark Jefferies/Roger Irvin Dunn

2004-01-24 08:57:40