WILD EAST. To 12 March.

London

WILD EAST
by April de Angelis

Royal Court (Jerwood Theatre Downstairs) To 12 March 2005
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 3.30pm
Audio-described 5 March 3.30pm (+ touch tour)
BSL Signed 22 Feb
Runs 1hr 25min No interval

TICKETS: 020 7565 5000
www.royalcourttheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 12 February

Big world meets small world in skilled drama.At first it seems April de Angelis is simply offering a comic view of corporate behaviour, as a nervous young nerd all discomposure, awkward remarks and ungainly clothing faces two offputtingly assured interviewers. They're both Doctors and clearly as psychometric to their fingertips as they are professionally drained of empathy for young Frank. Their sole concern is whether he's company fodder. Can he stop regarding the Russians as soulful and help sell them yoghurt?

Then as the interview proceeds the disorientation grows, amid corporate elegance so blandly depersonalised even the door can take some finding. And the interviewers have their own tensions, emerging as the play proceeds. Dr Pitt has just returned to work after an accident to find a new carpet. Its significance unravels as sign of a bigger threat who knows who this month's employer is in the increasingly corporate world? Continuous restructuring is the future, as the more confident Gray puts it, shrugging off a colleague's sudden dismissal.

The two Drs' personal relation has also fissured, impacting on Frank's video-taped interview (there's neat comedy in the tape's being switched off and on increasingly as part of the interviewers' power-interplay).

What Frank brings, for all his awkwardness, mixed motives for wanting a job taking him to Russia and past secret, is the breath of outdoor experience to the self-contained, air-conditioned world of marketing. His language (and Frank has the big speeches) ranges from the spontaneous to the awed recounting of experience in the wider world and across time (he's an anthropologist). It contrasts the others' assured but jargonised dialogue.

Tom Brooke excellently combines Frank's awkward naivety and genuine imagination, while Sylvestra Le Touzel as the troubled Pitt and Helen Schlesinger as the mega-assured Gray expertly catch the mix of arrogance and self-protection in the interviewers.

Only one thing limits the play; the attempt to crowd so much into one continuous interview. Despite the skill of Phyllida Lloyd's detailed yet swift-moving direction there's a slight air of congestion as the issues unfold. But even if it's not de Angelis' most positive hour-and-a-half this is an intelligent, satisfying play.

Frank: Tom Brooke
Dr Pitt: Sylvestra Le Touzel
Dr Gray: Helen Schlesinger

Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Designer: Mark Thompson
Lighting: Adam Silverman
Sound: Ian Dickinson
Company voice work: Patsy Rodenburg
Fight director: Terry King

2005-02-14 16:20:54