UNDER THE WHALEBACK. To 3 May.
London
UNDER THE WHALEBACK
by Richard Bean
Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs To 3 May 2003
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Sat 4pm
BSL Signed 24 April
Runs 2hr 5min One interval
TICKETS: 020 7565 5000 (24 hours)
020 7565 5100 (10am-6pm)
www.royalcourttheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 19 April
Fishermens' tales and trauma: a dramatic voyage that's turbulent but brings in a valuable haul.At first it seems we're in for a set of playlets on the lines of Eugene O' Neill's one-act seafaring dramas, set in crew quarters under the ship's bow ('whaleback'). But Richard Bean's drama takes on the structural ties of a well-made play. Finally, it traces one fisherman's life, picturing changing society. It's a story of sea-swept morality, inheritance and truth - and a damn'd fine-spun yarn.
Bean probes the nature of man and society. In Richard Wilson's fine-tuned production, with its pack of ace performances, the play ends up gripping tight.
The confined cabin of three distant water (ie Arctic) fishing boats becomes the audience's world as much as the characters' – only an especially loud laugh at a literary joke momentarily reminds we're in Chelsea.
Times change: from the rough days of legend-to-be maverick Cassidy, and the crude 1965 black-and-white pin-up, through the colourfully self-conscious poster-girl of 1975 – the most-peopled scene, with old Bill, maker of crude comments and fine-detailed carvings, the born loser Roc and destructive Norman – to the near present.
Heritage has overtaken fishing; a tedious sea-scene the girls on the wall. But the past haunts, as it has throughout. And the new generation talks, thinks and behaves differently. It's a dangerous age. Old certainties have gone: for young Pat society is the criminal world of his imprisoned role-model brother.
In a violent, destructive all-male world, where the final confrontation is between two men with gender-jumping names, finally there's a female presence in Darrel's daughter – at once innocent, legitimate (in a tale where bastardy's been recurrent and significant) and knowing.
Bean resorts to a melodramatic moment, and a switch in Pat's search for truth has to be taken on trust. But it's a strong play still, with two outstanding performances: Matthew Dunster's driven double act, especially Pat, his mind rattling around the spaces social organisation no longer fills. And Alan Williams (a thirty year career taking him from Hull Truck to Hull trawler) as the drunk wild-man Cassidy and the gravel-voiced, calm Darrel, living with the consciousness of a terrible event almost thirty years before.
The Kingston Jet (1965)
Darrell (17): Iain McKee
Cassidy: Alan Williams
The James Joyce (1972)
Darrel (24): Iain McKee
Norman: Matthew Dunster
Roc: Richard Stacey
Bagnall: Ian Mercer
Bill: Sam Kelly
The Arctic Kestrel (2002)
Darrell(54): Alan Williams
Pat: Mathew Dunster
Elly: Sophie Bleasdale
Director: Richard Wilson
Designer: Julian McGowan
Lighting: Johanna Town
Sound: Gareth Fry
Dialect coaches: Joan Washington, Jeanette Nelson
Company voice work: Patsy Rodenburg
2003-04-20 12:10:25