THE SMASHED BLUE HILLS. New End Theatre to 10 March.
London
THE SMASHED BLUE HILLS
by Dominic Francis
The Weaver-Hughes Ensemble at New End Theatre To 10 March 2002
Runs 1hr 30min No interval
TICKETS 020 7794 0022
Review Timothy Ramsden 17 February
A script crammed with ideas is shanghaied by its structure.Weaver-Hughes commissioned this play, and I'm not surprised. The script must have held out exciting prospects. It's easy to imagine a lot of exhilarating discussion taking place during rehearsals.
There's so much in here, on any reasonable reckoning this has to be a play fighting for the stage. But by that unfathomable two-way alchemy of theatre, the finished result never comes to life in front of an audience.
I'll start again. Is there really nobody in the Weaver-Hughes Ensemble who was able to see that one Copenhagen doesn't mean science is automatically engaging on stage? Did nobody realise Dominic Francis's play was never going to take on theatrical life?
Francis has crammed so much into his script, starting from the news story of a man's remains found in the Scandinavian snow. There's the search for the man's identity, where and why he was travelling; even the matter of the most appropriate questions for science to be asking.
Then there's the possibility our understanding of ancient human migrations might need revision, political interference, the question of faked evidence, media-handling and scientific objectivity threatened by personal considerations. Plus the competing claims of Past and Future. All that, without even an interval's pause for thought.
The play's numerous brief scenes make for a ramshackle structure. Then, just as the action's developing, dramatic life gets put on hold while one of the characters monologues their feelings at us.
Good theatrical monologue writing spins an intricate pattern of events, ideas and suggestions that play off one another. Here, we are treated to stodgy confessionals from characters whose interest for us probably lies more in the actors' than the writers' contribution – it is a good cast, certainly for a fringe production.
But their work cannot animate a script where the serious intentions seem planned out in advance and where there is no dramatic propulsion. I'm not saying they should do it on ice - though there's an aptly glacial feel to Nigel Hook's set – but that the most exciting ideas need to engage through character and action. Make those matter and the ideas take wing.
Dan: Nathan Nolan
Anna: Henrietta Helldin
Marlene: Julia Stubbs
John: Charlie Buckland
Director: Timothy Hughes
Designer: Nigel Hook
Lighting: Alex Wardle
Sound: Michael Winship
2002-02-21 00:17:49