THE PAIN AND THE ITCH. To 4 August.
London
THE PAIN AND THE ITCH
by Bruce Norris
Royal Court (Jerwood Theatre Downstairs) To 4 August 2007
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 3.30pm
BSL Signed 12 July
Captioned 19 July
Post-show talk 28 June
Runs 2hr 20min One interval
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www.royalcourttheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 23 June
Comedy and social criticism craftily combined.
Here is cultured, civilised America (Bruce Norris’s play began in Chicago, and has played in New York) living in a stylish, chicly minimalist apartment from designer Robert Innes Hopkins. It’s home to a liberal-minded family so wrapped-up in their self-consciousness they have no idea of a world elsewhere; for all their stated values, they immediately become embarrassed over the prices they pay for this existence when questioned by unaffluent-looking Asian visitor Mr Hadid.
It’s for his sake they recount a family explosion at Thanksgiving. And, ironically, Hadid starts orchestrating the moves between his visit, as snow falls outside, and the rosier-lit family gathering.
There’s a suitably clean-limbed style to these characters, except older-fashioned socialist grandmother Carol, whom Amanda Boxer expertly shows fussing in a self-absorbed, part-remembered world. Their self-enclosure’s hinted at in the similarity of first names: Clay and Kelly, the married hosts, house-husband and business executive, their sophisticated veneer thinly covering instinctive nerves underneath, brother Cash and his glamorous, hyperactive East European girlfriend Kalina.
Kalina puts their highly articulated concerns, summed-up by young daughter Kayla’s itchy genital rash, in perspective against her victimisation in Eastern Europe. Even this ends in a triumph of trivialisation and personal over objective concerns, as Kalina and Cash argue over her mispronunciation of “perspective”.
Kalina also tests their professed liberalism by her intolerance, while a trail of hypocrisy finally links her real suffering with Kayla’s painful itch. And their insincerity would, it’s suggested, soon eject Hadid into the snow if he didn’t give up on them first.
Norris’s play goes beyond the easy satire it first seems likely to be, its comedy growing increasingly dark as it gnaws away at the easy life, eventually showing negative feelings as the only ones truly held.
Dominic Cooke’s production catches every character foible and comic moment. The excellent cast contrasts Matthew Macfadyen’s never-easy Clay, unassertively assertive, finally sulking on the sidelines, with Peter Sullivan’s suave Cash, a rich plastic surgeon.
And Sara Stewart’s apparently controlled but clearly wound-up Kelly contrasts the openly-emotional Kalina. Abdi Gouhad’s Hadid calmly offsets the others’ over-wrought insincerity in this intriguing transatlantic discovery.
Mr Hadid: Abdi Gouhad
Clay: Matthew Macfadyen
Kelly: Sara Stewart
Kayla: Hannah Gunn/Shannon Kelly/Angelica Trew
Cash: Peter Sullivan
Kalina: Andrea Riseborough
Carol: Amanda Boxer
Director: Dominic Cooke
Designer: Robert Innes Hopkins
Lighting: Hugh Vanstone
Sound: Paul Arditti
Assistant director: Amy Hodge
2007-06-24 23:02:10