THE PRIDE. To 20 December.

London.

THE PRIDE
by Alexi Kaye Campbell.

Royal Court (Jerwood Theatre Upstairs) To 20 December 2008.
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Sat 4pm.
Post-show talk 11 Dec.
Runs 2hr 15min One interval.

TICKETS: 020 7565 5000.
www.royalcourttheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 29 November.

Play of contrasts and complexity.
As a play by an accomplished actor The Pride offers strong roles to its four performers. But it also has the structural sense, character development and rich texture that make for rewarding viewing as it moves back-and-forth across a half-century, between the last age of illegal homosexuality in 1958 and the present day.

At first the fifties scenes reflect the manner and dialogue of polite, clipped repression in that decade’s conservative theatre. The rift in Oliver and Sylvia’s marriage emerges through details, finely indicated by Lyndsey Marshal and JJ Field. Philip’s homophobic self-loathing erupts from his repression of desire for his wife’s work-partner Oliver.

Later, Campbell tears through this polite surface with his play’s most violent moment, before ending the fifties story with an act of betrayal, made under the clinical approval of a doctor specialising in aversion therapy. The author knows description is far more powerful than display here, and is particularly restrained in suggesting the most shocking detail.

All isn’t roses with these characters’ present-day namesakes. ‘Homosexuals’ have become ‘gays’, but gay’s a word that’s acquired a newly insulting sense in society. Sylvia is now a sympathetic friend to Oliver, whose promiscuity has brought a breach with partner Philip.

Though distraught at losing the love of his life, Oliver is compelled by sick sexual desires; Campbell vividly delineates the incompatible co-existence of sexual compulsion and love. And the fine cast in Jamie Lloyd’s production, at once fast-paced and allowing key moments the necessary space to resonate, catch the anguish, guilt and changes in status – as, for example, Field crumbles from assertive husband through assertive homophobe to the despair of guilty desire, or in the contrast between Lyndsey Marchal’s crystal-cut fifties anguish and the independent, northern-vowelled 2008 Sylvia.

Dreams and fantasies, described or acted-out, suggest the depths within human desire, as does the mirrored back-wall of Soutra Gilmour’s set, alternatively seeming ornamented or tarnished, and occasionally deepening the sense of awareness with offstage figures - a suitably reflective setting for a play that explores complex human desire through a combination of external action and by delving into deeper consciousness.

Philip: JJ Field.
Oliver: Bertie Carvel.
Sylvia: Lyndsey Marchal.
Man/Peter/Doctor: Tim Steed.

Director: Jamie Lloyd.
Designer: Soutra Gilmour.
Lighting: Jon Clark.
Sound/Music: Ben & Max Ringham.
Dialect coach: Penny Dyer.
Fight director: Kate Waters.
Assistant director: Darragh McKeon.

2008-11-30 11:39:30