THE DROWNED WORLD. Tour to 15 March.

London/Tour

THE DROWNED WORLD
by Gary Owen

Paines Plough at The Bush Theatre To 15 February then tour to 15 March 2003
Mon-Sat 8pm
Runs 1hr 20min No interval

TICKETS 020 7610 4224
www.bushtheatre.co.uk
Review Timothy Ramsden 17 January

Beautiful people banged up in aggro-corrupted future; a poetic, unsentimentally moving play.Social disruptions often create room for envy-fuelled revenge. In the future society of Gary Owen's new play, beautiful 'radiant' people are imprisoned and murdered with Pol Pot league efficiency and brutality. Owen's achievement is to make his mix of reality and fantasy grippingly convincing.

The Orwell-tinged future marks out his characters' emotional needs. As in his debut, Crazy Gary's Mobile Disco Owen uses monologue-soliloquy, but here mixed with spoken thought and – heavens – moment of dialogue. His other play, Shadow of a Boy, is recalled in the fantasy elements: that seemed, last summer, a step back but this latest piece makes re-assessment an enticing project.

For, short as it is, The Drowned World is the first maturing of an exciting playwright (which makes it frustrating for those of us not familiar with the Principality's lingo, that his next play's in Welsh).

The present play suits Vicky Featherstone's precisely detailed style admirably. Though Neil Warmington's set doesn't quite fill (even) the Bush's stage, its tight area backed by flowers and bubbling water creates the need/hope contrast that heightens the play's power. Costume continually points up the conflict between colourfully patterned, if now bloodied, elegance and dull-coloured plainness. Neil Mckinven's Darren, the common citizen in a climate of fear, clings to home in simple t-shirt and pyjama trousers.

Playing goodness and beauty's an invite to hollowness. Featherstone and actors Butler and Steele avoid it: partly by his frequent worried overtone – an innocence coloured by just enough awareness of luck to date. And partly by the ambiguity with which Tara curdles under pressure; demanding at times, she discovers an animal's defensive snarl when McKinven's mild yet inwardly desperate Darren approaches too near.

There's an outstanding performance by Eileen Walsh as a militia-leader: initial, near robotic angularity and tight-muscled expression melting to softness and smiles as she unfreezes. Featherstone's direction makes the play's murder – a brutal drowning – more powerfully moving by its stylised minimalism, which allows people, not violence, to be the focus, while a final fantasy union keeps clear of sentimentality

Tara: Josephine Butler
Julian: Theo Fraser Steele
Darren: Neil McKinven
Kelly: Eileen Walsh

Director: Vicky Featherstone
Designer: Neil Warmington
Lighting: Natasha Chivers
Sound/Composer: Nick Powell

2003-01-19 22:04:16