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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
HAND IN GLOVE
Verdict: Frenetic study of venality and greed
London - White Bear Theatre - October 02
Tues 24 Sept - Sun 13 Oct. Not Mondays. Tues to Sat 7.30 pm. Sun 4 pm.
Here's 90 minutes of frenetic entertainment with a fine focus on greed. Three contestants endure self-abasement to win a car. If you ever wondered what happens to reality TV when it goes on holiday - it comes to fringe theatre in South London.
The humiliation of poor and desperate people for casual amusement has been around since Roman circuses. Sydney Pollack examined it in his 1969 film 'They Shoot Horses, Don't They?', about marathon dancers in the American Depression. Hand in Glove is set in the present, featuring a trio of unlovable Londoners, who together disprove the rule that you have to have sympathy for the characters to be hooked by the play.
Because hooked one is, from brutal Fraser, oily Ken and ghastly Tanya's acknowledgement of applause of an unseen studio audience as we enter, to the ... clever catch in the climax.
And there are many catches. Writer Eddie Coleman has created a subtly intricate script, as twisting as a set of interlocking helixes. There are revelations which change how we think of the players. It's a feature of this fine piece of writing that each secret unlocked advances the plot, without making anyone likeable.
The players have come off their break, and each puts on a single glove for the next time-segment of the marathon. They must touch a car (the idea's from the reality programme Touch The Truck). The last to let go wins the car. It's revealed that there were 20 contestants at the start. The surviving three have broken a record for the show by staying awake and in touch for 74 hours.
Elderly Ken (Hugh Hemmings) is dying for a cocoa, made by his wife Marge, who's really dying - offstage, fortunately - of cancer. Yes, it's the other c-word, ever-effective, and practically the only means of death left in a society that doesn't starve. Ken plans to sell the car, if he wins. Though Marge must die, the money could buy her time, via private medicine. After 41 years together, Ken will miss her. But is he quite what he seems?
Every pious word of unlovely Ken - unctious, too-good-to-be-true, and portrayed quite magnificently by Hemmings - may call to mind Peter Cooke's epic Cancer (from which Cooke died) sketch with Dudley Moore, in which each tries to out-do the other with more virulent and total forms of the disease.
Single mother Tanya (Libby Harland) is dying for a wee. Her boy's Frankie, 8, though sometimes she can't recall his name. Her world's focused on Frankie, not that she meant to have him alone. She was in love with his dad, Tony, and wanted marriage, to be loved, a future. But Tony left when she was pregnant. If she wins she'll sell the car and use the money to buy toys for Frankie at Christmas. She'll buy dresses for herself (it's been shell-suits for a while). If she can have money, the future's going to be all right.
Tanya's personality, as revealed with glorious panache by Harland, is shallow. She may have a child; she may have a mother (with facial hair); but the centre of Tanya's universe is - Tanya. At least she tells the truth. Or does she? Is Tanya, herself, perhaps something of an actress?
Big brutal Fraser (Rob Sheridan) taunts Tanya to bursting (with wee) point. As alpha-male to Ken's grey fox, he taunts him to fight. He's a classic bully, and both Ken and Tanya know to stand up to him. Unlike them, Fraser's not after the money. For him, the driver is a lack of self-esteem - which he believes will be boosted by fame and a kind of achievement.
Fraser's bit of car to hold is suitably phallic, a column of exhaust pipe which he swings round to reach towards the others in threat, consolation, and lust. Sheridan has the measure of Fraser, and plays him with threat and vulnerability. As with Ken and Tanya, there are questions about Fraser, revelations to be made.
Hand in Glove is a fine story, and the direction and acting exploit three dramatic relationships. Fraser and Ken tussle like males in a herd. Between Ken and Tanya there's a type of father-daughter axis. The relationship between Fraser and Tanya is taut and complex: it's horns locked, it's sexual (a magnificent and unexpected scene), it's oddly caring. And between the three of them, all that can be found is one more-or-less honourable person.
Hand in Glove has the benefit of three gifted performers. Libby Harland delivers an engaging perfection as the dreadful Tanya. Harland sketches in every nuance of the character with subtlety and conviction - her evocation is a delight. Hugh Hemmings does slimy Ken quite wonderfully. His Ken both delivers his part and reacts to the others in a wholly convincing way, and he makes Ken excellently creepy. Rob Sheridan gives Fraser an explosive power that delights and terrifies. There's depth to the part, and Sheridan finds it, creating a characterisation of reality and substance.
Writer Eddie Coleman delivers here a fine piece of dramatic work. As structured, it's two halves of about 40 minutes with a 5-minute break. This play is prime Edinburgh material, and while it works well at 1.5 hours, it could be a work of genius at the 55-minute-no-interval classic Edinburgh format. That's not to say it's flabby as it is; more that a writer of Coleman's talent could form from the present edit a taut masterpiece.
Cast: (alpha order): Tanya - Libby Harland. Ken - Hugh Hemmings. Fraser - Rob Sheridan.
Company credits: Closely focused and evocative direction from Director Noah Birksted-Breen. Powerful contrasts in the on-air and off-air scenes, and the romantic interlude, from Lighting Designer Robin Snowdon. Carefully considered effects and sound-score from Sound Designer Chris Halliwell. Carefully considered and convincing set from Set Designer Maira Vazeou. Stage Manager - Mathew Faye. Flier design - Rob Carter. Writer - Eddie Coleman.
Artistic Director White Bear Theatre Club - Michael Kingsbury.
END
John Park
reviewed Friday 11 October 02 / White Bear Theatre
related topic - details of They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) are on International Movie Database
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
