THE MAN NEXT DOOR. To 22 May.
Tour
THE MAN NEXT DOOR
by Shon Dale-Jones
Hoipolloi Theatre Tour to 22 May 2003
Runs 2hr 10min One interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 19 May at The Junction Cambridge
Clever and expertly done – but what's it all for?I'm glad I caught this show on the flat-floor stage of this Cambridge music venue. The shifting scene units – tall wall sections – would be at odds with a formal proscenium stage. Here, they work perfectly. Frequently put through their paces by a company who turn scene-changing into an art-form, these walls slide, reverse, transform, creating an uneasy, hostile environment.
There's the cramped intimacy of Jake's flat; other flat-doors are staggered over the stage, giving the sense of a fractured society where a neighbour is simply 'the man next door'. There's a busy mail-sorting office, with sinister security beams. Opened up, the scenery allows glimpsed distances. Often the casual scurrying of characters across these perspectives is as involving as the upfront scene.
Everything's a tired institutional green. It takes Stefanie Muller's elegant warm-coloured clothing to put humanity into things. She's some kind of dissident. Whatever she's dissenting from seems summed up in the sinister grey-coated figures who prowl with hard, leering expressions of authority, plus secret-service issue raincoats, their collars absurdly starched to tower above their heads.
One of the piece's joys is the contrast between the actors in this mode and in contrast as frightened citizens. None more so than Derek Elwood; a looming spook who could double as Max Shrek's Nosferatu, he appears in other guises as fearfully polite.
Between good and bad guys stands postmaster Franc – Trond-Erik Vassdal starting all authoritarian and ending a bruised and pliable victim. The storyline this lot are put through - disappearances, disguises and an eventual showdown - may set out to represent a disjointed society. But it treads over-trodden paths. At some length.
Its espionage themes and motifs can be comically inventive and offer intriguing stage pictures. As acting, as staging – fine sound-score – it's impressive ( and a matter of taste: some may think it an all-through hoot; others may find the whole enterprise ridiculous).
But this genre's frequently been parodied. There isn't the backbone of story consistency here – the idea the company could outdo serious versions – to pull the venture off. The invention's here: it needs to find the right material.
Ed: Derek Elwood
Jon: Ben Frimston
Mags: Gracy Goldman
Jane: Stephanie Muller
Lindy: Jill Norman
Jake: Andrew Pembroke
Franc: Trond-Erik Vassdal
Director: Shon Dale-Jones
Designer: Stefanie Muller
Lighting: Ian Brown
Sound: Tom Lishman
Tour:
20 May The Junction Cambridge
21 May Norwich Playhouse
22 May Haverhill Arts Centre
2003-05-20 00:58:07