TWO. To 28 June.

Bury St Edmunds.

TWO
by Jim Cartwright.

Theatre Royal To 28 June 2008.
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 2.30pm
Runs 1hr 40min One interval.

TICKETS: 01284 769505.
www.theatreroyal.org
Review: Timothy Ramsden 25 June.

A range of experiences in a crowded room.
Opposite Bury St Edmunds’ Theatre Royal (recently restored to its original Georgian splendour) stands a brewery, making this almost a site-specific performance, as playwright Jim Cartwright’s pub regulars mime their way through pints, wine and shorts.

As two actors weave off and on again in different guises, Cartwright’s northern pub (the play was written in 1983 for Bolton Octagon) reveals the pools of loneliness that exist nightly amid the frenzy of a crowded room.

They can be amusing, melancholy or fearful, from flighty Moth, coming on to any attractive woman while being finally tied-down through his aging body’s infirmity to regular woman-friend Maudie, to Lesley whose domestic misery is heralded by the plodding hopelessness of her walk.

In contrast, there’s the fat couple whose awareness of their adipose excess goes with a cheery, bantering relationship, or the old widower contenting himself by concentrating on memories of his wife. Through and around these, stands the fractured relationship between the outwardly cheerful landlady and landlord, its insult-laden, aggressive tension reaching a mid-point height when she deserts him just as a stag-party enters to swell the coffers and herald a hopeful marriage.

Cartwright’s language may not have as many baroque flights as his Road or Little Voice, but its richness is evident, making the final, simple declaration of underlying love the more pointed. Director Tim Treslove gives an unreality to the proceedings in his production, on Bury’s main-stage after its home run in Colchester’s Mercury Theatre studio, by an opening dance on the mirrorball-lit stage, and Hansjorg Schmidt’s subdued lighting at that finally-released statement of love, which emerges from near-darkness, almost as a surprise to the pair whose unspoken feelings have ruined most of a decade.

Designer David Thomas’s neutral set uses pub tables and chairs to create a sense of cramped crowding. Gina Isaac and David Tarkenter squeeze between tables, adding to the sense of people isolated within anonymous cheer and noise. Both find the various characters’ comedy, sadness and isolation, even if the formal stage means we tend to view the little worlds of Cartwright’s characters rather than simply sharing them.

Landlady/Old Woman/Maudie/Mrs Iger/Lesley/Alice/Woman: Gina Isaac.
Landlord/Moth/Old Man/Mrs Iger/Roy/Fred/Little Boy: David Tarkenter.

Director: Tim Treslove.
Designer: David Thomas.
Lighting: Hansjorg Schmidt.
Sound: Marcus Christensen.
Choreographer: Charlie Morgan.

2008-06-27 12:29:52