THE DRUNKS To 1 October.
Stratford-upon-Avon.
THE DRUNKS
by Mikhail and Vyacheslav Durnenkov translated by Nina Raine from a literal translation by Maria Kozlovskaya.
Courtyard Theatre in rep to 1 October 2009.
Runs 2hr No interval.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 1 October.
Sound and fury production hides significance.
Russian ‘Revolutions’, Stratford style, begin with two plays from today’s post-Soviet state. In The Drunks brothers Mikhail and Vyacheslav Dumenkov attack corruption and false idealism. At the centre, their Joe Soap, or John Doe, is a soldier, Ilya (Jonjo O’Neill), back from Chechnya.
‘Greeting’ him is a society where vodka flows and moral bases are askew. It’s an old song given new words - the soldier who finds ungrateful indifference in ‘Brother, Can You Spare A Dime’ or Richard Aldington’s trenchant Death of a Hero, where war, despite its horrors and idiocies, provides a quality of human courage that makes civilian shallowness seem futile.
Here, the brief comradeship of drunks on a train turns to indifference; Ilya, angered at the fake camaraderie, starts fighting and gets ejected. Local politicians want his heroic glow to give a shine to their tarnished reputations. Darrell D’Silva’s police-chief swaggers with a ceremonial sword that’s the nearest he’s come to military combat, while Brian Doherty’s greedy enforcer of a mayor enlarges his ego through his aide Kostya, a glamorous sidekick in Christine Entwisle’s performance.
If there’s any centre of moral authority it’s the schoolteacher Babitsky. But if that’s what the character, with his regrets and ponderous statements, represents it means moral awareness is otiose and ineffectual. Sandy Neilson gives him a wearily childish jocosity; years of being an authority figure with children have removed any real authority in a war-torn, drinking-to-oblivion world.
It’s a wild, kaleidoscopic play, and designer Tom Piper’s set of neutral, moveable units creates the sense of a tipsily blanked-out life. A large cast cavorts around the space, Nick Powell’s score giving both a mordantly blowsy march-song associated with Ilya and popular tunes raucously rendered.
But all the hectic bustle itself blanks out detail, and while ensemble moments have their own theatrical excitement, the rest of the playing-span becomes one-dimensional, suggesting that, beneath the sound and spectacle of all the razzle-dazzle there’s not a lot of substance. Maybe a smaller-scale, more focused production would take a pop at various targets in a way that’s more varied than the RSC’s one big bang.
Conductor/3rd Ilya: Charles Aitken.
1st Subordinate/2nd Policeman/2nd Ilya: Adam Burton.
Railway Worker/Vassiliev: David Carr.
Mayor: Brian Doherty.
Kotomtsev: Darrell D’Silva.
Scene Announcer/1st Ilya: Dyfan Dwyfor.
2nd Babitsky/Saveliev: Phillip Edgerley.
Kostya: Christine Entwisle.
Passenger/Elderly Man: James Gale.
3rd Passenger/2nf Barfly: Paul Hamilton.
2nd Subordinate/Man in Hat: James Howard.
Sergey: Richard Katz.
Babitsky: Sandy Neilson.
Ilya: Jonjo O’Neill.
Young Kostya/1st Barfly: Peter Peverley.
Plump Woman/Woman in Beret: Sophie Russell.
3rd Babitsky/1st Policeman: Clarence Smith.
2nd Passenger/Efremov: James Traherne.
Natasha: Hannah Young.
Director: Anthony Neilson.
Designer: Tom Piper.
Lighting: Oliver Fenwick.
Sound/Music: Nick Powell.
Music Director: Michael Cryne.
Movement: Anna Morrissey.
Company text/voice work: Alison Bomber, Tess Dignan.
Fights: Terry King.
Dramaturg: Jeanie O’Hare.
Assistant director: Helen Leblique.
2009-10-06 16:39:02