THE MAY QUEEN. To 26 May.

Liverpool

THE MAY QUEEN
by Stephen Sharkey

Everyman Theatre To 26 May 2007
Mom-Sat 7.45pm Mat 16 May 1.30pm 26 May 2pm
Audio-described 24 May
BSL Signed 23 May
Post-show discussion 15 May
Runs 2hr 15min One interval

TICKETS: 0151 709 4776
www.everymanplayhouse.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 12 May

Classic in inspiration and quite possibly a modern classic itself.
Stephen Sharkey has chosen a title that’s ironically misleading, if strangely suitable. It’s cheeky too of the Everyman to describe Sharkey’s play as a thriller, for it’s hardly the stage equivalent of a page-turner. The excitement mostly lies in piecing together the narrative strands and working-out the relationships in a play which is both local and universal, abstract and classically tragic.

But it’s grimly impressive throughout, played on Colin Richmond’s abstract landscape, a featureless terrain of rock and grit, backed by a huge incline. Characters either wander on a seemingly-interminable journey, or set up a brief, comfortless home with chairs and table in a semi-defined post-war setting. Some characters are encountered only once, like the transient Docker, violent till a gun’s trained on him, and the wandering German-Jew Liliane.

If the violence they’ve been among remains largely suggested, a clearer secret emerges round the Donahue table, with daughter Theresa’s resentment against mum’s new lover Vinnie. Eventually it all adds up but this is Catholic Liverpool (though its priestly representative is an equivocal figure), something that, like the experience of war for Theresa’s returning brother, affects action. This Electra finds things more complex than she’s been imagining.

Director Serdar Bilis and an outstanding cast give the play every gram of grim weight, building to Sharkey’s outburst of open violence, which is matched by consideration of the psychologies involved; the loud shots come from guns that have been a long-time smoking.

Everyman regular Leanne Best is excellent as Theresa, her sullen withdrawn manner and moments of defiance stoking up the intensity that makes her quietly determined behaviour in the final moments utterly convincing. Cathy Tyson gives the mother Angela a strength disturbed by guilt while Niall Refoy balances the hard-man and humane potential in her lover Vinnie; a splendid performance where threats and smiles are both convincing and both genuine.

Mark Arends makes brother Michael’s determination on the journey home and final response faced with the act he’s travelled to commit cohere strongly, while Michael Ryan provides a necessary standpoint outside the Donahue’s intensity. A magnificently controlled production of an impressive script.

Michael Donahue: Mark Arends
Eileen McGrath/Liliane: Alisa Arnah
Theresa Donahue: Leanne Best
Colin/Docker: Paul Duckworth
Father Quiggan/Mickey: Denis Quilligan
Vinnie Phelan: Niall Refoy
J J Collins: Michael Ryan
Angela Donahue/Veronica: Cathy Tyson

Director: Serdar Bilis
Designer: Colin Richmond
Lighting: Ian Scott
Sound/Music: Dan Jones
Movement: Scott Graham for Frantic Assembly
Assistant director: Adam Cross

2007-05-20 12:59:26