YORGJIN OXO - THE MAN. To 23 December.
London
YORGJIN OXO - THE MAN
by Thomas Crowe
Theatre 503 503 Battersea Park Road SW11 To 23 December 2005
Tue-Sat 8pm Sun 5pm
Runs 1hr 50min
TICKETS: 020 7978 7040
Review: Timothy Ramsden 11 December
Bold drama needs more sense of independent life.
This could seem either a powerful, mythical vision of society expressed in strong, muscular language, or an overblown, derivative attempt at something grandly dramatic that falls flat, its language never giving characters freedom from the authorial word-processor.
There are elements of both in this story of the man who emerges from a quagmire, where his old teacher knows the ways of survival, into something like a medieval society, where a cathedral is something new, and people discover how to violate and exploit others.
The action moves through the audience, who are seated in isolated communities on low bales or wooden benches. Crowe has some forceful images, while Alex Clifton’s direction has voices imposingly coming from all around. But 110 minutes is a long time for what is essentially a story told as reportage in intercut monologues.
Use of mice as a kind of counter-narrative device, biting its way into the reported action, might attempt to add to the mythical quality but hand-puppets (and the jokey cast-list element) risk the ridiculous in a story where the language is tough but often self-conscious. Somehow, the whole adventure never quite takes off.
Perhaps because, despite Tom Hiddleston’s appealing, concentrated performance as Yorgjin, sharing a sense of adventure and searching with the audience, and a strong presence by Denis Quilligan as his early mentor, the acting more widely does not sustain the significance and scope each individual character needs to build a portrait of a world discovering itself.
If the Reviewsgate thumbs are slightly down for achievement, they spring erect for Crowe’s ambition and willingness to taken on a big subject. At present it’s questionable whether, despite the bold manner, anything new is being said about the major issues being presented. When there is that sense of analysis and probing, and when the language’s muscularity works free of a sense of author’s deliberate contrivance, Crowe may yet add to the limited range of wide-ranging yet clear-focused plays that move beyond the here and now, whether in modern clothes or dressed up in historic costume.
Yorgjin Oxo: Tom Hiddleston
Turga: Kate Donmall
Simeon: Darri Ingolfson
Uncle Quagmire: Denis Quilligan
Marshlander/Priest: Sean Carrigan
Speaker: Georgia Cook
Melanie Mouse: Abbey Tittlemouse
Director: Alex Clifton
Designer: Alice Walkling
Lighting: Katharine Williams
Sound: Phil Hewitt
Composer: Joseph Finlay
Assistant designer: Amelia Power
2005-12-13 13:44:42