THE MADRAS HOUSE. To 14 October.
London.
THE MADRAS HOUSE
by Harley Granville Barker.
Orange Tree Theatre To 14 October 2006.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat & 14, 21 Sept 2.30pm.
Audio-described 30 Sept 2.30pm, 3 Oct.
Post-show discussion 6 Oct + Thu mats.
Runs 3hr 10min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 8940 3633.
www.orangetreetheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 11 September.
A long evening profitably spent.
For Noel Coward or Alan Ayckbourn to have 3 plays simultaneously in London’s no great surprise; but for Harley Granville Barker to have 2 is astonishing. Bernard Shaw’s younger contemporary isn’t a crowd-puller. But as his 1906 Voysey Inheritance continues at the Lyttelton, Sam Walters’ Orange Tree offers this play from 4 years later. Constantine Madras Well it might.
In act one Walters efficiently crowds 10 people onto his small stage, mostly women, from Constantine’s neglected wife Amelia: lace-capped, pale, and aged, a Victorian leftover, to the multiple Huxtable girls, fizzing with energy but having little destiny in life.
By act 2, Philip Madras, manager of the business, is dealing with women employees’ feelings. In the third act, when the Madras House’s future is settled, only men are involved, apart from silent mannequins obeying brusque instructions. For the Madras House is a fashion emporium, founded on Constantine’s skill clothing women’s bodies. No wonder, when men and women talk seriously in the final act, the going is rough.
There’s little plot and Barker’s main attempt at it is the least convincing part of a play focused on ideas, a mighty symphony eventually resolving in a duologue for Philip and his wife Jessica, a long scene which Timothy Watson and Catherine Hamilton commendably sustain.
Watson has the toughest time, trawling through business and personal matters, keeping his enlightened social ambitions bright, selling the firm and joining the Council. This private/public journey, in the opposite direction from modern British political trends, clashes Victorian laissez-faire ideas against social responsibility. Barker comes close to the Shaw of Mrs Warren’s Profession in remarking how its young women employees (the single ones made to live in company lodgings) effectively sell their charm to increase Madras House profits.
Constantine’s Islamic conversion strikes another modern resonance, though his grand position is punctured as surely as Ellie Dunn probes Captain Shotover’s in Heartbreak House. Barker lacked Shaw’s playful cheek but this clearly-thought revival forms a fascinatingly complex debate on relations between the sexes.
Henry Huxtable: Geoff Leesley.
Katherine Huxtable/Miss Chancellor: Jacqueline King.
Laura Huxtable/Freda Brigstock: Paula Stockbridge.
Minnie Huxtable/Jessica Madras: Catherine Hamilton.
Clara Huxtable/Maid/Mannequin: Beatrice Curnew.
Julia Huxtable/Marion Yates: Octavia Walters.
Emma Huxtable/Mannequin: Sarah Manton.
Jane Huxtable/Mannequin: Charity Reindorp.
Constantine Madras: Richard Durden.
Amelia Madras: Jan Carey.
Philip Madras: Timothy Watson.
Major Hipsley Thomas: Mark Frost.
William Brigstock/Mr Windlesham: David Antrobus.
Bellhaven: Nicholas Gadd.
Eustace Perrin State: John Chancer.
Director: Sam Walters.
Designer: Tim Meacock.
Lighting: John Harris, Dan Last.
Assistant directors: Henry Bell, Helen Leblique.
Assistant designer: Robyn Wilson.
2006-09-14 14:07:37