TOMBSTONE TALES AND BOOTHILL BALLADS. To 20 December.
London.
TOMBSTONE TALES AND BOOTHILL BALLADS
by Carl Heap.
Arcola Theatre (Arcola 1) 27 Arcola Street E8 2DJ. To 20 December 2008.
Mon-Sat 8pm.
Runs 2hr 20min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 7503 1646.
www.arcolatheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 1 December.
Songs and dances, and tales, of death.
Having already taken on myths from Ancient Greece to the World Cup, Carl Heap’s company beggarsbelief attacks the Wild West, arriving at the Arcola firing from both barrels with tales of 1880s Tombstone, the Arizona prospecting town famous for its OK Corral gunfight.
Not tonight, though. For there are plenty more fatal stories - Boot Hill was cemetery for the town with a local paper called the Tombstone Epitaph. An opening collage shows deaths natural, accidental or inflicted, while several characters are reminded the evening’s not about them.
The drawback of these tales is that the death often occurs before we learn much about the life. And some stories are far from remarkable. Two men quarrel in a saloon. One waits outside then shoots the other as he leaves. Someone explodes on the toilet for reason or reasons unknown. It’s hardly High Noon.
Enter the beggarsbelief popular playing style. Apart from moments of audience involvement (good fun) and participation (less integral than in Heap’s previous epics), it largely involves treating scenes in various genre styles. The fake-magic of ‘The Water Closet’ provides amusement the material itself doesn’t have. Sometimes songs (there’s a lot of singing) are used to disguise material that’s probably turned out less interesting than it first seemed.
The company works hard to inject life into these tales of death. Amd there are stronger scenes, like the grotesquerie of Ian Summers’ tough bargirl seeing off a rival. Or the sweetly, if not powerfully, sung fable of impoverished lovers; its sticky sentimentality made appealing by Joe Townsend’s mordant melody (Townsend also provides the evening’s tuneful conclusion as a minor matter of a shirt develops into a major mishap)
Perhaps best is the story of wrongly-hanged George Johnson, his death throes turned into a table-top clog-dance, followed by Tombstone’s version of an official cover-up. Elsewhere, the show’s amiable rather than exhilarating. But Heap, as usual, allows the stories their integrity (these little events once mattered – were life and death - to the people involved), making Tombstone/Boothill considerably more satisfying than the open parody that some think fun at Christmas.
Doc Goodfellow/Lester Moore/Johnny Behind-the-Deuce/Magician/Mexican Musician/Ed Bradshaw: Alan De Vally.
Mill Joyce/Drunken Cowboy/Morgan Earp/George Johnson/Thomas Fitzhugh/Outlaw/Horse/Tom Waters: Chris Doyle.
Ed Schieffelin/Charlie Storms/Phil Schneider/Man Bearing News/Bob Paul/Apache: Tom Espiner.
Rev McIntyre/Luke Short/Bud Philpott/Captain Carillo: Marc Forde.
Dutch Annie/Fred White/Margarita/Virgil Earp/Tombstone Reporter/Mrs Kellogg/Outlaw/Horse/Thomas Harper: Erica Guyatt.
Bat Masterson/John Clum/Curly Bill/Billy Milgreen/2nd Apache/Shopkeeper: Tom McHugh.
Clara Spalding Brown/Wyatt Earp/Hank Dunstan/Malvina Lopez/Outlaw/Horse: Victoria Moseley.
George Parsons/Drunken Cowboy/Gold Dollar/John Gibson/Outlaw./Horse/Old Man Clanton/Mike Noonan/Barman: Ian Summers.
Delia William: Funke Adeleke.
John L Fonck: Yoko Brewer.
Cora Davis: Dan Davies.
Pete Roerig: James Grant.
Director: Carl Heap.
Designer: Miriam Nabarro.
Lighting: Richard Williamson.
Composer: Joe Townsend.
Choreographer: Jane Gibson.
Costume: Mila Sanders.
Assistant director: Russell Bender.
2008-12-03 00:26:43