TUSK TUSK To 2 May.

London.

TUSK TUSK
by Polly Stenham.

Royal Court (Jerwood Theatre Upstairs) To 2 May 2009.
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Thurs 2.30 (except Apr 30), Sat 4pm.
Captioned 21 April.
Runs 1hr 40min One interval.

TICKETS 020 7565 5000.
www.royalcourttheatre.co.uk
Review: Carole Woddis 4 April.

Those middle-classes still haven’t sorted themselves out.
Following up an outstanding debut is never easy. Polly Stenham must have groaned under the weight of expectation following her award-winning That Face here last year. So has she pulled it off or is she just a one-trick wonder?

Tusk Tusk doesn’t answer that question with any degree of certainty. There are too many echoes of That Face not to wonder if after mining this particular seam Stenham will be able to widen out her interest to encompass other worlds.

My betting would be she will for although Tusk Tusk takes us back once again to Stenham’s territory of troubled middle-class adolescence, it does so with an edgy, visceral assurance that indicates a wealth of future possibilities. The Stenham voice, too, is a distinctive one. She plays with words with the mischief of the true wordsmith. She has no trouble relaying comical effect whilst indicating cruel vulnerability beneath.

This is particularly true in the character of Eliot (Toby Regbo making an extraordinary acting debut) – a close relation to Henry, the son in That Face with an incestuous relationship to his unstable mother. Eliot is both protector and increasingly, oppressor. Only in the latter stages do we begin to understand the desperate need that informs his behaviour. Eliot will go to any lengths to keep his `family’ together. He is, after all, still only 15, Maggie 14.

Holed up together with their younger brother, Finn, awaiting a mother who never arrives, it takes some skill to maintain our interest in its mainly game-playing action. But through this playground structure, Stenham painfully reveals how dangerous is parental neglect, how these games mirror the family’s dynamics and how their upbringing is likely to colour future relationships with the world outside.

Dominic Cooke always said he was going to shine a light on the middle classes when he succeeded Ian Rickson as the Royal Court’s Artistic Director. Seeing Tusk Tusk and the revival of Wallace Shawn’s The Fever back to back, that commitment seems very much alive. Both plays are merciless in their examination of nurture in the way we relate to the world.

Eliot: Toby Regbo.
Maggie: Bel Powley.
Finn: Finn Bennett/Austin Moulton.
Cassie: Georgia Groome.
Katie: Caroline Harker.
Roland: Tom Beard.

Director: Jeremy Herrin.
Designer: Robert Innes Hopkins.
Lighting: Neil Austin.
Sound: Emma Laxton.
Fight director: Renny Krupinski.

2009-04-10 23:24:22