THE PROMISE. To 12 May.
Colchester
THE PROMISE
by Aleksei Arbuzov translated by Ariadne Nicolaeff
Mercury Studio To 12 May 2007
Tue-Sat 7.45pm Mat Thu 2.15pnm & Sat 2.45pm
Runs 3hr Two intervals
TICKETS: 01206 573948
www.mercurytheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 2 May
More threat than promise.
This play made quite an impression in 1967 London when it came through the Iron Curtain, from Russia with love as a central theme. Then again, that was the sixties, when things Soviet had mystery and chic, and the production had Judi Dench, Ian McKellen and Ian McShane playing its 3-way love affair. Now it isn’t, and this production hasn’t.
Noel Coward liked it, perhaps recognising something of his eternal triangle from Design for Living. Aleksei Arbuzov sets his trio amid the Siege of Leningrad before moving them post-war, then to the easier time of New Year’s Eve 1959, with a hopeful new decade about to dawn.
Maybe, if the Mercury studio was air-conditioned, or there had not been a spring heat-wave, this would have been more tolerable. But it’s doubtful it could ever have been more. Kelly Williams’ Lika is tactfully English in its contained playing, from the moment she’s discovered squatting in Marat’s family flat during the starvation days of the Siege.
In stifling heat it’s hard to imagine the freezing Leningrad, despite Clare Birks’ stripped-bare setting. Furnishings elaborate towards comfort, if not luxury, over the years. Lika’s lovers, friends and rivals forever coming and leaving, represent 2 sides of Soviet society, though bridge-builder Marat (less competent at building bridges in his personal life) is, it’s implied, more able at work than minor poet Leonidik.
His refusal to publish his best stuff comes over, from him and the protective Lika, as a bad excuse for worse verse. In Mark Field’s bland performance it’s hard to find anything except a contrast to Matthew Parrish’s Marat, for whom no line is sufficient. No phrase, no word, nor any silent moment, passes without fierce emphasis. It’s a cliff-edge performance without a cliff, though if it were more controlled it might give a Russian edge to proceedings.
Director Tony Casement seems content to let all this happen without creating any stylistic consistency in performances. 1967 London’s cast probably made the play seem better than it is; but there must be more to it than is offered by this muddle of ill-defined emotions.
Marat: Matthew Parrish
Lika: Kelly Williams
Leonidik: Mark Field
Director: Tony Casement
Designer: Clare Birks
Lighting: Nic Holdridge
Sound: Marcus Christensen
2007-05-07 10:19:40