THE GOD BOTHERERS. To 20 December.
London
THE GOD BOTHERERS
by Richard Bean
Bush Theatre To 20 December 2003
Mon-Sat 8pm
Runs 2hr 15min One interval
TICKETS: 020 7610 4224
www.bushtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 25 November
Fine production of an often-hilarious, almost convincing script.Here's what comes out the other end of the collecting-tin: world-weary Keith, touring sites of global need rather than return to multi-domestic chaos back in Oldham, and shallow, benevolent Laura, missing the glossy mags as she arrives to take over Keith's posting in an unidentified hotspot, with its local terror gang and Muslim influences.
Richard Bean's non-governmental organisation workers are familiar dramatic types: experience and shining innocence. Laura's chirpy letters home run alongside her new-generation enterprise in kitting out the local burqua-wearing women with mobile phones.
Innovation has unforeseen results: a communal fresh-water tap deprives local water-seller Monday of customers, and raises male suspicions of what women could get up to when not spending 5 hours daily fetching water.
All that unites Keith and Laura is a fondness for four-letter words. It's a surprise when he refers with conviction to God, not Someone Laura bothers overmuch about. Fearful she'll have yet another daughter, local woman Ibrahima takes to the mountain to pray for a boy, while Laura sets a friend to start an internet chain prayer.
Prayer's always off-centre, somewhere between superstition and hope; the value Bean celebrates is human friendship; not the connection with any Heaven, but cross-cultural benevolence.
It's worked out in Laura's final relationship, in the cool Brit Asian who replaces her, and in the closing reference to the NGO Headman in Bracknell, who seems remote from this reality.
Sometimes the action strives effortfully towards a predetermined pattern. Occasionally moments, like Ibrahima's mountain prayer, are perfunctorily handled. Laura's final situation isn't convincing. Which might be the point, but this isn't made evident.
The four performances are unvaryingly excellent. Sunetra Sarker gives a sense of the mind under the veil, a real sense of female presence in a male society, while David Oyelowo registers moods from pain to cheer as someone whose religion is a flag of convenience.
Roderick Smith's world-weary Keith has a rugged defensive cheer hiding personal failures, while Georgia Mackenzie's bright-mannered Laura is a skilfully detailed amalgam of notions and mannerisms. William Kerley's ever-attentive production is aided by bob Bailey's sunbaked, hut-based set.
Keith: Roderick Smith
Ibrahima/Harsha: Sunetra Sarker
Laura: Georgia Mackenzie
Monday: David Oyelowo
Director: William Kerley
Designer: Bob Bailey
Lighting: Tanya Burns
Sound: Mike Winship
2003-11-27 00:32:45