THE INTERNATIONALIST. To 3 May.
London.
THE INTERNATIONALIST
by Anne Washburn.
Gate Theatre To 3 May 2008.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 3pm.
Runs 1hr 30min No interval.
TICKETS: 020 7229 0706.
www.gatetheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 11 April.
Anxiety-filled drama of dislocation in a suitably sleek production.
America and Britain have long been divided by the same language. Now, globalisation divides Americans from those who speak English in many more parts of the world. Poetically-named Lowell’s making mistakes from the moment he meets Sara at the airport of an unidentified Central European nation.
She’s stepped out of line, coming to meet him. Back at work, she’s a mere stock-clerk. There, polite executives meet Lowell, while returning to their own language to shout about the security lapses that have let him into their offices unannounced. Paul is the one Lowell’s exchanged emails with, and sounds the most British, but he’s learned the accent from his tutor and turns out the most openly hostile towards America.
Between sympathetic-sounding hostility and urgent switches into the local language, no wonder Lowell’s confused. Even Sara’s attempts at out-of-hours sociability add puzzlement, with her long, mysterious drinks orders (which include a short, mysterious drink). And her relationship with others at work is never quite defined, though a scene where executives leave her holding a pile of box-files only she could locate suggests hierarchic structures.
Natalie Abrahami’s production captures the sense of disturbance when meaning’s just beyond reach, with precise, lean-limbed performances and a stylish minimalism that surrounds stage and audience with shelves of uniform grey files.
Silhouetted figures mysteriously move into position for the next scene, as if waiting for Lowell. At start and finish the executives are lined in a row; only Sara stands alone. There’s a sense too, in the sudden disappearance of one character, that things are ultimately out of control.
A night-time street-scene shows Lowell’s attempt to pick up a prostitute going awry. His attempt to explore the country’s cultural history brings him up against utter incomprehension from a woman who’s unable to understand he’s American, while being rooted entirely in her own language and place.
Both Anne Washburn’s “Foreign Comedy” and Abrahami’s Gate production catch the new world economic order’s disturbing mix of instant familiarity and underlying anxiety, with a feel like the bleak hospitality of the international hotels whose nature, in this play, are also quite ambiguous.
Sara: Jennifer Higham.
Lowell: Elliot Cowan.
Irene: Madeleine Potter.
Nicol: Alan McKenna.
James: Gary Shelford.
Simon/Paul: Brendan Hughes.
Director: Natalie Abrahami.
Designer: Tom Scutt.
Lighting: Ben Pacey.
Sound: Carolyn Downing.
Choreographer: Pedro Pires.
Assistant director: Lootie Johansen-Bibby.
Assistant sound: Elena Pena.
2008-04-14 10:36:52