THE REAPPEARANCE OF CHRIST IN THE EAST END. To 28 August.

London

THE REAPPEARANCE OF CHRIST IN THE EAST END
by Peter Hamilton

White Bear Theatre 138 Kennington Park Road To 28 August 2005
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Sun 4pm

TICKETS: 020 7793 9193
Review: Timothy Ramsden 7 August

The reappearance of Peter Hamilton at the White Bear would benefit from less predictable performances.This is the second school-play on the London Fringe recently. Whereas Simon Vinnicombe's Year 10 at the Finborough was a full-blast look at pupil experience, Peter Hamilton sets his more tentative action mainly in the Religious Studies department staff area in Mile End Comprehensive. Despite their beliefs in various more-or-less eternal verities, these teachers change their own perspectives and plans.

Most committed is young Roger, fresh from teacher training and a psychiatric institute. He's enthusiastically into Theosophy and when a relationship strikes up - remarkably speedily, the ink's hardly dry on the first books he's marked with Head of RE Ailish, she looks for sex while he wants mutual soul-searching and Theosophical reading sessions.

For their colleague Pat Baxendale, a Doctorate under her belt and still going after another degree, religion is a matter of doubt and politics. There's regulation older disillusioned teacher, Barry the Buddhist for whom age and a prostate problem have called into question the concept of timelessness.

In case all this leads towards dismissal of religious experience, back home is Roger's mother Steph, using fading glamour to hitch up with moneyed men and living in a frightened, protective shell of high-class routine. Then there are the religious experiences, as almost everyone in school seems to see a Christlike figure around the East End. This annoys Roger, whose Theosophy explains these figures' presence but who's so busy chasing up someone else's last sighting he never meets one himself, leaving him frustrated and deprived.

It's hard to judge the degree of Hamilton's success with all this as Darren Tunstall's production plays for the obvious. Stacha Hicks' Ailish is a cross-bearing, squeaky-voiced mouse-type Head of RE, making secretive notes on corners of papers and lunges for Roger in the park.

James Carcaterra's Roger is fresh-faced innocence making confident declarations about the world he barely understands. His home-life is uncertainly presented. Phil Goldacre has Barry's measure, the reflections arising naturally through his outer cynicism while Sally Mortemore's Steph is purposefully aware of her forceful nature.

Ultimately, though, the Christ' sightings don't relate clearly enough to each character's changed decisions.

Barry: Phil Goldacre
Ailish: Stacha Hicks
Pat: Sally Mortemore
Roger: James Carcaterra
Steph: Adrienne Marks
Frank: Charles Anderson

Director: Darren Tunstall
Designer: Raphaela Henry
Lighting: Andrew Ellis
Sound: Gary Sefton

2005-08-08 09:49:16