THE PLAY Barons Court to 10 February.
London
THE PLAY
by Dipak Chowdhury
Barons Court Theatre To 10 February 2002
Runs 1hr 15min No interval
TICKETS 020 8932 4747
Review Timothy Ramsden 3 February
Puzzles galore – but it's puzzling how many are presented by the play, how many by an audience's reactions.Not since The Mousetrap has an audience been so enjoined not to reveal the contents of a play. There again, not since Christie's fifties fossil has the spirit of old-style family drama been so blatant on stage (and you'll notice an Agatha in the cast). Despite the visible presence of the 2002 edition of a writers' handbook, reference to John Osborne in the dialogue comes as quite a modernist shock.
In another sense there's a fair bit of modernism about. Difficult to explain without saying what must not be said, but the action repeatedly provokes the thought of two possible meanings inherent in such terms as acting, performance and (stage) reality.
It's hard too to say much about the performances either. Certainly they vary in quality, but the central ones in particular follow a style that goes with unfailing bright lights and recognisable stage settings. Actors throw themselves full-pelt into characters and there's never a doubt about what they're saying. What's missing is subtextual acting, the flickers and flinches that give a sense the characters are thinking more than they are saying. The kind of thing that gives them depth.
But is that deliberate? Or is this really a world where characters have no reflective lives? If so, is it the characters that lack this, or is it the actors who are not adding this in to their characterisations? Is Grineau's production faithfully capturing a world of unreality or is it just not fully making Chowdhury's world fully real?
The play, or The Play, leaves too many options open. Not that it needs be more explicit, or any longer. But having rocked the reality boat early on (perhaps too dramatically, too early) it could take us further into its (un)realities before the final curtain – which is where the final point is made. And I hope that's not revealing too much. For the term 'curtain' is, of course, a metaphor, rather than a material fact.
I hope this review is not too bland, or grey.
Blandon Grey: Michael Instone
Alice Grey: Sarah Maguire
Mama: Annie Julian
Papa: David Stead
Michael: Stephen Carlile
Agatha: Catheine Nicholson
Director: Lord Russell Grineau
Lighting/Sound: Ben Porteous
2002-02-04 15:13:51