TRYING. To 11 April.
London.
TRYING
by Joanna McClelland Glass.
Finborough Theatre above Finborough Road Brasseri8e 118 Finborough Road SW10 9ED To 11 April 2009.
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat & Sun 3pm.
Runs 1hr 50min One interval.
TICKETS: 0844 847 1652 (24hr no booking fee).
www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 29 March.
Secretary takes on judge in finely-portrayed drama.
Though far from a novice playwright, in her 2004 play Joanna McClelland Glass operates the common advice to tyros, to write about what you know. Sarah, from Saskatchewan, arrives aged 25 in Washington DC to work as secretary to curmudgeonly octogenarian Francis Biddle, formerly Roosevelt’s Attorney General and Chief American Judge at Nuremberg. He’s part of America’s Great and Good and used to his own way, tramping determinedly upstairs to an office across from his home.
Glass was slightly older than Sarah when she worked for the real Biddle in the 1960s. But the mid-20s suits the character, making a way in the post-university world, and married life. She’s the more interesting character, certainly as played by Meghan Popiel.
This isn’t to deny Michael Craig’s skill. He brings a casual assurance to Biddle’s authority, and how a literary hinterland encouraged by his wife Caroline mixes with legal exactitude over English grammar. Caroline’s kept a telephone-call’s distance from the cramped work-room, where a bed between the two desks suggests Biddle’s limited strength as much as the never-overplayed repetitions indicate mental aging.
Crucially, Craig doesn’t search for audience sympathy, any more than he does Sarah’s. Biddle speaks within a limited vocal range but Craig makes clear his sharp intelligence, finely eliding moments of assertion and giving way to his new secretary’s ever-practical suggestions.
Popiel, though, doesn’t seem to be performing at all. Sarah’s prairie directness and politeness mix nervous vulnerability and assertiveness, as she sets the limits in the way she’s treated. It’s as if the sixties Saskatchewan woman was there before us. Every moment’s fully inhabited in her features and vocal colouring, but no detail seems added-on, or seeking an effect.
Sarah’s ability to evaluate and cope with her own problems create an inner, partly-seen, current of thought. Rarely has anyone on stage looked so unactor-like, or seemed convincingly to be living the character’s actual life. Over-expressive Hollywood cuties could learn a lot from this performance.
The contrast of old and new, of impending death and birth take this play beyond the usual ‘odd couple’ contrariness, making for a dramatic jewel.
Sarah Schoor: Meghan Popiel.
Judge Francis Biddlre: Michael Craig.
Director: Derek Bond.
Designer: James Perkins.
Lighting: Sally Ferguson.
Sound: Kathryn Wilson.
2009-03-30 10:48:17