THE RETIREMENT OF TOM STEVENS: Ivory, Lakeside Arts Centre till 25 March

Nottingham

THE RETIREMENT OF TOM STEVENS
by William Ivory

Lakeside Arts Centre: To 25 March 2006
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat 18,22 March 2pm
Audiol-described 22 March 2pm & 8pm
BSL Signed 23 March
Post-show discussion 20 March
Runs 2hr 15min One interval

TICKETS: 0115 846 7777
www.lakesidearts.org.uk
Review: Alan Geary: 10 March 2006

Mercilessly and humorously, it takes its complex, alarmingly real, characters to pieces, laying their past bare and leaving a hopeless pile of wreckage.
Slushy initial background music tells you that this is going to be an ideal Perry Como-type family Christmas get-together in Southwell, Notts; but the sickeningly skewed angle of the casement at the back suggests otherwise. Think of all the appalling family Christmases you can recall and roll them into one. You have this play.

Using an economic and subtle text - not a word is wasted - five expert actors sustain excruciatingly embarrassing, and highly entertaining, stretches of tension and forced gaiety. These are continually punctuated by even more entertaining rows. It’s rich in coarse humour, but it mercilessly takes its complex, and alarmingly real, characters to pieces and lays their past bare. At the end we’re left with a hopeless pile of wreckage.

The two brothers are splendidly contrasted. Richard, (Simon Merrells) the successful sports journalist up from London, who wrestles with the main question posed - ‘How far are we our parents?’ - is the central character. But more interesting is David, the childlike and plodding stay-at-home, brilliantly realised by Tim Dantay. Paradoxically, as he himself says, he’s the one who’s managed to move on, going some way towards shaking himself free of his past.

Maurice Roeves turns in a brilliant performance as broken patriarch Tom. Browbeaten for years in the job from which he’s just retired, he spent a lifetime taking it out on his family. But, since this play deals in real people and not stage ciphers, Roeves makes him sympathetic all the same.

William Ivory’s debut stage play - one hopes there’ll be more - is a homage to his Nottinghamshire hometown. But, far more importantly, it’s an outrageously honest analysis of character and relationships which deserves a national audience.

Mary: Denise Black
David: Tim Dantay
Susan: Elaine Glover
Richard: Simon Merrells
Tom: Maurice Roeves

Director: Matt Aston
Designer: Helen Fownes Davies
Lighting: Richard G Jones
Sound: Paul Stear
Fight director: Paul Benzing

2006-03-13 01:41:45