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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
SILENT ENGINE
Verdict: Moving resurrection of love
Edinburgh - Gilded Balloon - August 02
London - Arcola Theatre - September 02
Silent Engine Tour Details
The drowned village of Hallsands makes a powerful setting for this
endearing play about baby-death and the saving of love.
Baby Marion's dead within days of her birth - rushed to hospital
and stuffed with tubes 'like a broken telephone'. Her loving parents,
architect Bill and museum restorer Anna, are inconsolable.
They visit a village that's been washed away by the sea, seeming to
mirror their predicament. Their efforts to rebuild life and with it their
relationship falter in the desolation of a storm. Anna confronts Bill
with her emptiness; the loss of maternity that's removed purpose from
her existence. As a couple, too, it's clear they've nothing left.
In anger and despair, Bill invites suicide by plunging into the sea.
Caught between life and death, he recalls every detail of Marion's death,
and chooses to follow her. But he reckons without the strength of Anna's
need; risking her own life, she dives in to rescue the man she's once loved.
It's a year later, and Anna (Cathy Owen) and Bill (Robin Pirongs) are
divorcing. They both have new lives, and they've not seen each other
since the night of the storm - each assumes the other doesn't care. Their
only bond is the urn of Marion's ashes. Gradually, they realise it's locking
them to the past. By giving up her remains, they can break free, and see
again into each other's hearts.
Cathy Owen plays Anna as a woman well able to express her emotions. She
allows Anna to prey effectively on the sympathy due by right to a mother
deprived of her baby. But she goes further, using the strong intelligence
of the script to present a passionate study of a woman brought to her knees
and finding the door to the future.
Robin Pirongs shows Bill as a powder-keg of repressed emotions. His
inner thoughts remain trapped under the daily routine of work and the
importance of the stiff upper lip. As Bill drowns, Pirongs opens the
inside of the character and allows him to spring open. As Bill
recounts in heartbreaking words the seconds of life and death of
his beloved daughter, it’s impossible to hold back the tears.
Kate Bunce has designed a delightfully stark and minimal set. It
serves both acts of the play differently and well. As a centrepiece
to the stage and props, it gives both performers and audience a
strong point of focus.
Lights, by designer Charles Balfour, are well-chosen to mimic the
flat-on glare of low winter sun. The hard brightness they give
to the faces of Anna and Bill underscores the tough integrity of the
script. Sound designer Barney Philbrick composes a lyrical sound-
track that gives sharp emphasis to the action.
Director Theresa Heskins provides a fine interpretation of writer
Julian Garner’s crisp new play. Not for a second does she allow
the dramatic pace to falter, and we’re kept fully engaged to the
last - optimistic - sentence. Garner has chosen a fine analogy
in the dead village for this daring piece of writing that ventures
deep into the human soul.
Production manager, Tim Brierley. Deputy stage manager, Hugh Jones.
Marketing and PR, Louise Chantal. Produced by Pentabus Theatre
John Park
reviewed at The Gilded Balloon, Friday 2 August 2002
(Photographs of Hallsands can be found at
http://www.hallsands.org.uk
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
