THE MODERNISTS. To 21 June.
Sheffield
THE MODERNISTS
by Jeff Noon
Crucible Theatre To 21 June 2003
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 18,21 June 2.30pm
Audio-described/BSL Signed: 19 June
Post-show Talkback: 17 June
Runs 2hr 25min One interval
Beautifully staged, some skilful acting: but give me a ride on one of those bikes any night.Early 1960s Bank Holidays were characterised by seaside scuffles between motor-bike gang rivals known as Mods and Rockers. Jeff Noon’s play goes behind the sleeker of these groups to its originators. ‘Mods’ for his quartet were childish latecomers; they preferred the name Modernists.
His band hang around steamy, nocturnal bike-lined London streets; only shyly stammering new singer Terrance is a non-rider. Simon Higlett’s set doubles, with adaptations, for downtown Soho and suburban Camden Town. It’s a marvellously evocative place, dark and stony, with an alleyway leading into the urban jungle, then a hell-corner Camden exterior with an extractor fan blowing smoke from a yellow-lit interior and schmoozy comfort from the Rose of England ballroom.
These warm shafts amid cold grey from Neil Austin’s lighting are echoed in the offstage club and ghostly echoes of amplified ballroom music. At one point in Camden the lads’ conflict takes place against the eerie echoing sound of a Noel Coward number, its factitious comfort counterpointing the growing tension. Criminally, the Crucible programme fails to credit this soundscape.
There’s a tragic conflict, a power-thrust and revenge for the ousting of Terrance’s predecessor. There’s menace in Leon’s serial notemaking and Clifford’s half-acknowledged, pre-permissive gay sexuality. Style is all - to be fine you have to be a dandy: no suit’s too shiny, no hairstyle too immaculate. Provided you've the personality to go along.Status places you, from the Face, that mysteriously decides what's in, what's out, through the people who count as Numbers, high or low, and the mere Tickets who follow along.
It's expressed in highly-patterned speech, which puts a definite article before names, as The Leon addresses The Vincent, or whatever – varied only by apostrophic address ‘Oh my Clifford’ etc. In its poetic formality, this - second in the Crucible’s ‘Sheffield First’ new play season to be set in London - recalls the image-filled formal language of Steven Berkoff’s East and Greek.
Except Noon doesn't develop action; Robert Delamere’s production resourcefully tries to cover this up by having characters stride or amble around. But, as the quartet talk at each other with chunky uneventfulness, dramatic life slips away from the stage.
Vincent: Tom Hardy
Terrance: Jesse Spencer
Leon: Paul Popplewell
Clifford: Orlando Wells
Director: Robert Delamere
Designer: Simon Higlett
Lighting: Neil Austin
Choreographer: Scarlett Mackmin
Dialect coach: Penny Dyer
2003-06-16 14:55:09