THE GOOD HOPE by Herman Heijermans. Cottesloe Theatre in rep.

Royal National Theatre

THE GOOD HOPE
by Herman Heijermans, adapted by Lee Hall

Cottesloe Theatre in rep to 5 February 2002 , and tour
Runs 2hr 35min One interval

TICKETS (Cottesloe performances) 0207 452 3000
Review Timothy Ramsden 8 January 2002

Century old trawl of trouble, relocated as a Yorkshire tragedy, in a production with most acts coming up trumps.It's a title that has to be ironic. Like the coffin ships of Ibsen's Pillars of the Community 'The Good Hope' is rotten: a fishing vessel with something more than fishy about its own condition. Come the inevitable storm, she sinks.

Heijermans does not stage the scene: during the storm we're by a less than cosy fireside where the crew's womenfolk take centre hearthrug by turn to tell tales of disasters past. It's the only act that risks sending itself up as old-fashioned 'woe/alas' drama in Bill Bryden's production. Each woman stands stagily for her story, emoting at high volume, as if auditioning for the voice of doom. The tempestuous playing drowns the capacity for sympathy.

But the surrounding acts are gripping. Bryden starts and ends with a group portrait. At the start the townspeople sit to indulge the amateur photographic hobby of the shipowner's daughter. At the end they re-assemble, dead and grieving together, as a reminder of their desolation.

Hope's drowned out of the whole community; the sea is their sole source of income. Kitty Fitzgerald has lost a husband and two sons to it before the play starts, yet she drags her aqua-phobic youngest Ben to earn a crust on board. Frances de la Tour is too forceful ever to seem ground-down – she'd give poverty itself a run for its money – but once she begins expressing Kitty's fear and grief, her performance becomes absorbing.

Best of all is Tom Georgeson in a performance of blazing integrity as the rich shipowner Makepeace. An iron-master he's also aware of his responsibility as job-provider and close enough to the people to be on first name terms with Kitty. He becomes a tragic figure as he's left flapping his sunken ship's certificate of seaworthiness, like a flag flapping over a field of dead soldiers.

The Good Hope hasn't the streamlined sophistication of more fashionable drama but it still has a strong heart and as strong a grip.

Tours: 12-16 February Theatre Royal Glasgow, 19-23 February King's Theatre Edinburgh, 26 February -2 March Theatre Royal Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 5-9 March Theatre Royal Brighton, 12-16 March Theatre Royal Plymouth, 19-23 March Theatre Royal Bath

Kitty Fitzgerald: Frances de la Tour
James: Steve Nicolson
Ben: Iain Robertson
Jo: Diane Beck
William: John Normington
Christopher Makepeace: Tom Georgeson
Clementine: Charlotte Emmerson
Arthur: Howard Ward
Simon: John Tams
Mary: Emma Bird
Michael: William McBain
Dan: Trevor Ray
Susan: Linda Thompson
Sarah: Sheila Reid
Harry: Robert Oates
First Copper: Edward Clayton
Second Copper: Ken Anderson
Trudger: Alan Dunn/Charlie Hart
Jed: Graeme Taylor
Molly: Chris Coe
Tadge: Keith Thompson

Director: Bill Bryden
Designer: Hayden Griffin
Lighting: Rory Dempster
Sound: Ed Clarke
Music Director: Graeme Taylor
Dance arranger: Chris Coe

2002-01-15 10:34:28