THE LIVING UNKNOWN SOLDIER. To 15 March.
London.
THE LIVING UNKNOWN SOLDIER
adapted from Le Soldat Inconnu Vivant by Jean-Yves Le Naour.
Arcola Theatre 27 Arcola Street E8 2DJ To 15 March 2008.
Mon-Sat 8pm
Runs 1hr 30min No interval.
TICKETS: 020 7503 1646.
www.arcolatheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 15 February.
Intriguing material needs to lose its rough edges.
If theatre ensemble Simple8 want their new piece to work, they urgently need to alter its start and end. Why does Tony Guilfoyle’s French doctor begins speaking (in English) about memory wiz ze verray French accent, then spends the rest of the evening as a French doctor speaking, along with other French characters, in English tones? The impact is merely (and unfairly) to make him seem a bad actor at the start.
As he asks us to shut our eyes and remember something, there begin the kind of choric sounds that may impress in a student exam-piece, but hardly pass muster here. At the end, repeated “We will remembers” clang like Brechtian theatre at its most didactic.
All this creates an embarrassment that risks undermining the main part of the piece. A shame, for it’s an intriguing story skilfully told by a reliable ensemble whose differences in appearance and personae make substantial contributions to events.
This unknown soldier is first seen on a railway platform in 1918, as prisoners are being repatriated. Couples meet-up, leaving one silent, withdrawn figure. Who he is, neither he nor anyone else knows. He spends the years in various asylums, eventually talking a little but with no memories of his identity or early life.
Publicity makes him a focus for many bereaved families and individuals who claim him as husband, son or brother. Sometimes it’s for economic reasons (another hand to till the field), but more usually out of desolation among those whose relatives vanished during the war.
The passing years are chalked up on the set - uncredited but apt; a memorial wall with a gash for entrances, revealing behind a field of poppies that recede into a blood-red blur.
The lost soldier is played in turn by all the company, switching as in a game of tag, sometimes with startling impact, as when patient and nurse swap roles. Around him are an increasingly frustrated doctor and an initially flippant journalist who eventually acquires some of the medic’s concern. Shorn of its brief outer panels, this makes an intriguing look at memory and loss.
Cast: David Brett, Stephanie Brittain, Hugo Cox, Tony Guilfoyle, Hannah Emanuel, Sue Maund, Tom Mison, Johnny Palmiero.
Director: Sebastian Armesto.
Lighting: Andy Downie.
Sound: Federico Fernandez-Armesto.
Costume: Natasha Ward.
Voice coach: Caryll Ziegler.
2008-02-19 01:21:22