THE HEBREW LESSON and UNSENT LETTERS till 28 June

THE HEBREW LESSON by Wolf Mankowitz
and UNSENT LETTERS by Andor Szilágyi

Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond

Dates: June 4 7, 12 14, 19 21, 26 28 at 7.45pm
Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes (one interval of 15 minutes)

Orange Tree Theatre
1 Clarence Street, Richmond, TW9 2SA
www.orangetreetheatre.co.uk

Box Office 020 8940 3633

A double bill - the passions of youth and the wisdom of age: impressive, atmospheric and the contrast couldn't be more striking.
THE HEBREW LESSON by Wolf Mankowitz, directed by David Roderick, is a deceptively simple play about a Russian Jewish immigrant and a young IRA revolutionary in Cork in the early Twentieth Century. Fleeing from British Black and Tan, and taking refuge in the Jew's synagogue - a meagre loft conversion in his own house - it tells the story of antagonistic cultures that pretend to be dissimilar but whose similarities are unquestionable. As the Yiddish veteran suggests during his didactic and very humbling social lesson, 'the dreams of young men don't change'; cultural arguments become hidden behind a facade with the realisation that they have evolved from the same roots are have merely become subject to social conditioning.

Amusing but beautifully touching, never overdosing in sentimentality, Philip Anthony gives an enchanting performance as the would-be rabbi, shuffling about the stage while still appearing larger than life, scratching his grey hair and embracing his prayer shawl and Torah - while learning to barter in the county's mother tongue. Kevin Heaney's Irish accent is difficult to place and did waver occasionally as the nervous revolutionary, but he, too, gives a strong performance that makes you believe how frightened and awkward he must feel.

In UNSENT LETTERS, directed by John Terry, Szilagyi plays with time and human interaction here is tough, disorientating Absurdism. Szilagyi shows the affects words have on nature and nature have on words. Trains pass the station platform and the full moon shines at her fullest as Captain Angelus and virgin Angelina meet, copulate and fall in love, followed by a life full of regret and fading memories - kept alive by a series of unsent letters.

The story does linger and errs on the repetitive, but this is all part and parcel of its orchestration: layers are built upon layers and, under the surface, it is easy to see the resonance to Russia's ravaging of Hungary in the 1940s.

Peter Broome plays a captivating Captain Angelus. He is over the top and eccentric, but his part does administer to the extreme. Elizabeth Healey is fresh and flirty in her role as the innocently provocative Angelina. The 'O' provides an entertaining adaptation to the original Hungarian script, flitting between the protagonist couple as a sublime spirit and supplying amusement during the morphing of time. David Yengibarjan's original accordion score is delicate but vigorous - a befitting background noise to the aberrant action.

THE HEBREW LESSON
Man: Philip Anthony
Boy: Kevin Heaney
Black and Tan 1: Brendon Byrnes
Black and Tan 2: Alan Sharpington

Director: David Roderick
Designer: Sam Dowson
Lighting Designer: Kevin Leach

UNSENT LETTERS
Angelus: Peter Broome
Angelina: Elizabeth Healey
O: Gerard Bell
Musician: David Yengibarjan

Director: John Terry
Designer: Sam Dowson
Lighting Designer: Kevin Leach

2003-06-23 19:41:28