THE SHAWL To 3 October.
London.
THE SHAWL
by David Mamet.
Arcola Theatre 27 Arcola Street E8 2DJ To 3 October 2009.
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat 26 Sept, 3 Oct 3pm.
Runs 50min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 7503 1646.
www.arcolatheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 12 September.
Intricate interplay of deception and desire.
Dalstonian Mametites should proceed forthwith to the Arcola where the substantial main space is currently focused on an oval table and a trio of actors. Theatregoers further afield might first weigh the fact of fifty-minutes’ drama against the time and trouble of journeying to and from Arcola Street (London first saw The Shawl in 1986, at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in a double-bill with the even briefer Prairie du Chien).
It’s dead-centre territory for David Mamet, not so much for the playwright’s famous disjointed sentences, capturing spoken attempts to express thoughts as the mind switches focus or injects new thoughts, while others’ responses trigger new directions. But more for his interest in deception and scams.
John is a psychic in a grey suit, and Amelia Nicholson’s acute production sympathises with the external ordinariness of the situation. The plain, minimal furniture designer Anna Bliss Scully rightly provides creates an everyday sense not altogether undermined by the highly-placed, narrow strip of window that almost occludes the world outside.
Despite candles and a lowering of Richard Howell’s plain lighting in a later scene, it looks and feels far less like a séance than in the 1986 production, as John appears to reveal a client’s past life.
He deconstructs his apparent divination for his new boyfriend Charles, whose behaviour shows John driven as much by desire as Miss A, who’s so keen for confirmation of a decision she’s to make that she returns even after exposing him.
Elizabeth McGovern gives a strong identity to Miss A: smiling, impressed, flashing with fury when John falls into a trap she sets. Holding herself formally, she’s polite, yet with an apt tension underlying her scenes. Matthew Marsh’s John exemplifies plausibility. Always ready with an answer, he never asks for money, allowing clients to decide on donations to his “work”.
Paul Rattray’s contrasting Charles, an angry rent-boy type who wants maximum cash from the gullible, shows John even the most cunning can’t always get what they want. Isolated in its own hour as it is, The Shawl creates a sense of human need alongside its games-playing plot.
Miss A: Elizabeth McGovern.
John: Matthew Marsh.
Charles: Paul Rattray.
Director: Amelia Nicholson.
Designer: Anna Bliss Scully.
Lighting: Richard Howell.
Sound: Tom Gibbons.
Assistant director: Catherine Hooper.
2009-09-14 00:50:52