VICTORY. To 18 May
Edinburgh
VICTORY
by Howard Barker
Royal Lyceum Theatre To 18 May 2002
Runs 2hr 25min one interval
TICKETS 0131 248 4848
Review Timothy Ramsden 18 May
A brilliant bite at the dark night of the left. Alongside its early '80s contemporary Top Girls Howard Barker's vehement tragedy defined its period with a rare acuteness that, 20 years on, stands both political and dramatic tests of time. Departing artistic director Kenny Ireland has been part of the play's history, as actor and director, from the start. So it's no surprise this Lyceum production is sharply focused.
Barker had in his sights early Thatcherite triumphalism, echoed in the Restoration of Charles II to the English throne in 1660. It's a period of open-faced nastiness in the pursuit of self-gratification. And revenge; the defeated, bedraggled opposition lamenting its failures to drive forward hard enough, is built round Bradshaw, widow of a judge who condemned the king's father, Charles I, to death in 1649.
Conscience lies in these bedraggled people, while the victors cry Rejoice! Yet, in the new world – which was to be defined dramatically in plays yet to come such as Caryl Churchill's Serious Money and Tony Marchant's Speculators – self-gratification and money have replaced conscience. It's a cold society, indulging greed and cruelty (a disfigured, tortured victim turns up wrapped as a present). Apparently on the same side, no love is lost or trust achieved between the king and the newly emergent capitalists forming the City of London around the banker Hambro.
Nothing is colder than sexual desire. Apparently Barker originally had a line - cut before the premiere - where the voracious Charles declared (people declare a lot in Barker's plays) that he hated women. Hence the royal favourites bearing bastards and becoming Duchesses, and the gutter-mouthed Gwynn - no romantic Nell of Old Drury – who flutter through the action.
Contrasting them is Kathryn Howden's composed Bradshaw, intelligent enough to see suffering is now her mode of existence. Late in the action Barker introduces the blind, sullen Milton, again no glorious poet but a figure of resentful defeat.
Set by Hayden Griffin in a tooth-and-claw-like rocky hard place, the brilliance, and wit, of Barker's language (he can be a tough playwright to listen to, but actors love playing him) come over with full force in Ireland's triumphant production.
Bradshaw: Kathryn Howard
Charles: Bob Barrett
Ball/Southwark/Moncrieff: Gilly Gilchrist
McCormack/Boot/Cleveland/Parry: John Kielty
Scrope/Ponting/Street: Luke Shaw
Devonshire/Pyle: Shauna Macdonald
Gwynn/Cropper/Brighton/Derbyshire/Darling: Helen Lomax
Gaukroger/Hambro/Footman: Barrie Hunter
Nodd/Wicker/Shade
Clegg/Roast/Feak/Mobberley: Ronnie Simon
Milton/Shade/Edgbaston/Hampshire/Undy: Crawford Logan
Director: Kenny Ireland
Designer: Hayden Griffin
Lighting: Andy Phillips
Costume: Shirley Robinson
Music: Matthew Scott
2002-05-22 11:44:55