THE TRESTLE AT POPE LICK CREEK. To 31 May.
London
THE TRESTLE AT POPE LICK CREEK
by Naomi Wallace
Southwark Playhouse To 31 May 2003
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 24.31 May 3pm
Runs 2hr 10min One interval
TICKETS: 020 7620 3494
boxoffice@southwarkplayhouse.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 May
A little world created with intense reality in a not always realistic play.Tons of gleaming metal thunder purposefully over the nowhere-town Trestle bridge, while a hundred feet below teenagers with nowhere to go in Depression-stymied 1936 America plan a potentially fatal chicken-run against the locomotives. The richest, most modern nation in the world gives nothing in this dry land. The only steady employment's the jailer, whose own son died on the same chicken exercise and who entertains or torments people with outlandish animal impersonations.
Existence is drained of life in this world. 15 year old Dalton and his father, curdled into agoraphobia by long-term unemployment, create animal shadows on walls. There's nothing for their idle hands to do, while mother's hands turn blue from the new chemicals at the job she hangs on to as all around are dismissed.
Ex Nihilo Theatre and Living Proof bring Wallace's intriguing drama, with its mix of social reality, quirky individual detail and time-shifting, to the intimate Southwark Playhouse (in an area that's acquired rich theatre provision in recent years).
The small, low-ceilinged space, lit by David Holmes with pools of brightness in a surrounding dark, suits the restricted scope of the characters' lives. Jaimie Todd's set, with its huge wooden struts, and poles hanging stalactitically from above, expresses the economic constriction forced on these people, while also suggesting the immensity of the rail bridge, and life's potential.
There's no weak link and many strong ones. Terence Frisch gives his jailer a toad-like quality, seemingly jovial yet barbed. But the central weight's carried by its two young characters. They're beautifully individualised by Wallace as a curious twosome, both denying any attraction yet fascinated by physicality, pictures of potential frustrated. Full of energy but nowhere to go.
Hannah Storey's a mite flat in vocal delivery maybe, but she gives a vivid sense of Pace Creagan's strangeness, a forthright, forceful person. In contrast, Steven Webb's Dalton Chance – two years younger at an age where that matters - is wide-eyed, with an inner quality that crosses the play's time zones. Webb builds his character through intricate technique, strong on reaction and timing. A fine production of an intriguing play.
Dalton Chance: Steven Webb
Pace Creagan: Hannah Storey
Chas Weaver: Terence Frisch
Gin Chance: Kate Harper
Dray Chance: Nicolas Colicos
Director: Raz Shaw
Designer: Jaimie Todd
Lighting: David Holmes
Sound: Mike Winship
Composer: Andrew Green
Movement: Yael Loewenstein
Fight director: Lewis Penfold
Dialect coach: Neil Swain
Assistant director: Elizabeth Freestone
2003-05-17 11:56:47