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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
ICARUS RISING
Verdict: Subtle drama of political and romantic manipulation
London - Man in the Moon Theatre - September 02
Man in The Moon, 392 Kings Road, Chelsea, tel 020 7351 2876
Tues-Sun. 9.30-10.45 pm. Ends Sat 28 September 02
This breathtaking piece of theatre is really two micro-dramas interlocked, but set 20 years apart. Its focus is the fate of pretty Marija, trapped in the detonation of Yugoslavia.
We meet Marija (Angela Dixon) immediately after her arrest. Tito is still alive, his magisterial presence continuing - just - to bind the disparate states of Yugoslavia together. Clinton's in England, dodging the draft and failing to inhale cannabis. It's a long time before he'll terror-bomb Serbia as a domestic diversion from the Lewinsky scandal, and the pus-filled husk of Albania has yet to explode over Europe. But nationalism is on the rise in every state of the Yugoslavian federation. Marija is in the firing line.
Secret policeman Vukic (Adrian Jubb) is keen for her to switch sides and join, if not the firing squad itself - which has wiped out a number of the friends in her photograph album - then at least the State's version of the good guys.
The photograph album is at the cross-hairs of Vukic's investigation. Who are these people? Marija's silent. Friends? University friends? Casual acquaintances? And this one with his arm round her? English? The English, in Vukic's experience, are as unreliable as the the English regard just about everyone south of the Channel. He's particularly interested in this one, Michael.
Fast-forward to the 90s. Marija's free and staying with Michael (Richard Earthy) in London. He's married now, to Julia (Doris Zajer), in a middle-aged, child-free, university lecturer/charity worker marriage with occasional bouts of vigorous sex. Michael's keen to have a moment alone with Marija, and not just to talk about liberation, at least, not in the political sense. Julia's tolerant, but is wary of losing her man to someone from his past. Marija is worried that the new liberal regime will discover her file.
So, exactly what did she agree with Vukic all those years ago? Betray her friends - or did they betray her? If not, who did? Michael? The British? Someone else? How did she buy her freedom - through endurance, or covert co-operation with Tito's government? All is revealed as the play grinds relentlessly, over feelings and the goodwill of well-intentioned people, to its disturbing conclusion.
There is excellent acting from each of the cast. Doris Zajer, playing a woman some years older than herself, provides a splendid London intellectual ripe with fruity sex-appeal, with an expertise in napkin-folding, and a considerable twinkle in her eye. Richard Earthy, again playing above his age, gives a Michael who's lost much of the romantic dream of his student days, soured by the loss of young love, but with a trace of spark left for the present.
The writing of the play focuses most closely on the relationship between Vukic and the young student Marija. Adrian Jubb as Vukic produces a powerful and credible secret policeman, the equal of Oskar Werner's performance as the honest interrogator Fiedler in John Le Carré's The Spy Who Came In from the Cold. We can believe in Vukic, because he genuinely believes in the State. His arguments against its disintegration are both honestly held and anticipate the appalling aftermath of its collapse. His analysis of Marija's play-script 'Icarus Rising', in which he compares nationalism to Icarus flying too close to the sun, is both perceptive and emotive - he believes what he is saying and is, in his own way, genuinely fond of her.
Angela Dixon, in the central role of Marija, provides a performance that is truly remarkable. Marija is on stage for most of the 75 minute play, and the scenes are presented intercut between the now of Michael and Julia's London house, and the then of her interrogation cell. The rapid alternation of 20 years' age, and the loss of innocence and idealism, is subtly conveyed. There are fine nuances of technique, for example her switch from natural English intonation with Vukic - to convey they're speaking in their own language - to a slight central-European accent with Michael and Julia, as a foreigner in England. But her sensual portrayal of Marija's small steps of fear, compliance, love, and distrust - all she dare allow herself - come from a depth of characterisation which is both essential to the play, and profoundly moving.
Nick Eisen has written an intimate and well-structured play, which is both convincing and forceful in that conviction. It's also a pleasure to watch. Tightly focused direction from Helen Alexander, making excellent use of a superbly disciplined set. Steve Miller grapples bravely with a lighting system which occasionally takes on a life (and death) of its own, to produce apt and moody effects. Subtle wardrobe from Susan Grange Bennett. Icarus Rising (and the separate play Kicking Oscar's Corpse earlier in the evening) will sadly be the last play to be performed at The Man In The Moon, the theatre is to become luxury flats.
Cast (alpha order): Angela Dixon (Marija). Richard Earthy (Michael). Adrian Jubb (Vukic). Doris Zajer (Julia).
Director - Helen Alexander. Wardrobe - Susan Grange Bennett. Assistant Stage Manager - Claire Jowett. Stage Manageer - Idil Kazancel. Lighting Designer and Technical Manager - Steve Miller. Stage Manager - Mary-Alice Stack. Writer - Nick Eisen.
END
John Park
reviewed Thursday 19 September 02 / Man in The Moon
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
