THE LINE To 12 December.

London.

THE LINE
by Timberlake Wertenbaker.

Arcola Theatre 27 Arcola Street E8 2D

To 12 December 2009.
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat 5, 12 Dec 3pm..
Runs 2hr 25min One interval.

TICKETS: 020 7503 1646.
www.arcolatheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 23 November.

Older male artist, young female admirer: guess what happens next.
Well, not, of course, Hollywood Montmartre. Not in the hands of playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker. It is, to start with, the 1880s and Edgar Degas is a famous Parisian artist. His servant Zoé is guarding his privacy as Matthew Lloyd’s production opens. But young Suzanne Valadon runs rings round them both. As she may well do, having been a trapeze artist.

Suzanne still juggles the men in her life, ensuring she has a child by Utrillo. But after a teenage injury she’s moved from sawdust and tinsel to charcoal and paper. It’s the portfolio of drawings the insistent visitor has brought with her that impresses Degas, himself past his phase in oils. He moves on to sculpture as the years pass evermore rapidly, scorning the paintings of Suzanne’s grown son as lifeless postcards, sure of a present market if not a place in posterity.

Henry Goodman shows, alongside the artist’s intensity, Degas’ physical aging as his mind and manner stays in his glory days (he resists moving on when his studio’s to be demolished), and he makes repeated misjudgements. Suzanne doesn’t age; she matures, adopting new fashions in clothing, remaining mentally flexible in Sarah Smart’s performance – a fine mix of assertion and commitment.

A strong trio’s completed by Selina Cadell’s Zoé, patient and reliable. And Lloyd’s production, set in a diamond surrounded by four blocks of audience, where designer William Dudley catches the artist’s life and studio in a work-table and a series of drawings pegged on a line, is detailed in handling Wertenbaker’s compact, intelligent script.

Yet, as the title phrase recurs, with authorial insistence, gaining new implications, the play refuses to spring to life. It remains overly self-conscious, its characters and their relationship varying without much developing. The very tightness of cast-list and staging seems to turn the action into a demonstration of themes.

This is the kind of thing which can alter during a run as the actors make the stage their own. Meanwhile, though Degas says, “We are dancers, Suzanne, trying for those beautiful arabesques,” the play remains, however intelligently, more a thesis on the artist’s dance.

Zoé Clozier: Selina Cadell.
Edgar Degas: Henry Goodman.
Suzanne Valadon: Sarah Smart.

Director: Matthew Lloyd.
Designer: William Dudley.
Lighting: Oliver Fenwick.
Sound: Steve Mayo.
Associate sound: Gemma Anne Harrison.

2009-11-27 13:56:35