THE NEST. To 22 May.

Scotland

THE NEST
by Alan Wilkins

Traverse Theatre Company Tour to 22 May 2004
Runs 1hr 45min No interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 2 May at Traverse 2 Edinburgh

A hill-climb and exploration of a play, one that needs only an interval to make it a fine, satisfying evening.Not to be confused with the Franz Xavier Kroetz play with the same English title and it's unlikely to be in the Highlands and Islands tour following its two weeks' Edinburgh run Alan Wilkins' new drama is solidly built, well-tailored to its intended audiences, produced and performed immaculately.

It's nest isn't really the nest that's another bothy, or unattended stopping-off point available to climbers and walkers at the end of the day or during inclement weather. There's a sense overall of things displaced in the lives of those finding themselves holed-up here during the kind of storm that used to prevent suspects leaving remote manor-houses in old West End crime plays.

Here despite one melodramatic moment the secrets are dug out of relationships and individual needs. Things are never quite as they seem. What should be a joint climbing triumph for a married couple turns out a moment of fissure and crisis. And the happy lone walker carries a symbolic burden that turns out easily disposable; and he's not one to deal in plain fact when embroidered truth seems better.

The other two are more clearly outsiders here, but play and, certainly, performances bind them seamlessly in. Jackie, the townie out on a photo-assignment is probably the least developed character she doesn't share the others' climbing currency but it's lovely to see Clare Yuille realising her character's puzzlement in this world, after her damage limitation job in Sauciehall Street on its recent Traverse visit.

Finlay Welsh's Innes seems young to have a fifty year-long mission, but Welsh skilfully shifts gear smoothly from edgily sinister to doggedly loyal, while giving a fine-judged portrait of incipient hypothermia and its after-effects.

Lorne Campbell's production makes the moves and conversational flow seem entirely natural, while precisely gauging the emotional peaks and plains. Lewis Howden has an apt forthrightness for his happy wanderer, while Matthew Pidgeon shows Colin quietly shut out by Candida Benson's outwardly controlled, yet tensed Helen.

At the end, Colin clears up the tin-can and packaging mess; take your rubbish with you is the bothy rule, and a guiding-point from Wilkins' play.

Colin: Matthew Pidgeon
Helen: Candida Benson
Mac: Lewis Howden
Jackie: Clare Yuille
Innes: Finlay Welsh

Director: Lorne Campbell
Designer: Andrew Burt
Lighting: Maria Bechaalani
Sound: John Harris

2004-05-04 13:18:18