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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
13 DRAMA SHORTS
Verdict: Delightful mix of comedy and drama
London - Jermyn Street Theatre - 12 December 02
Director Alex Scrivenor presents a fine one-off lunchtime event: a well-balanced bill from high comedy to intense drama in a set of 13 drama shorts (authors in brackets):
THE MEMORY OF WATER (Shelagh Stephenson). The death of an old woman stirs memories of childhood in three sisters. Mary (Felicity Glencross)'s a doctor in a sleeping bag, waking up to argument from the other two: she remembers mum as generally OK. Responsible sister (Julia John) crossly enquires where the other two were in the final stages, and brandishes her lists. Catherine (Ayla Karol)'s done a fair amount of drugs (and Spanish dancers) and remembers childhood as hell. It's an engaging 3-hander examining the legacy of childhood from the perspective of years, with enlightened performances.
THE BULLET (Joe Penhall). A man (Matt Reeves)'s lost his girlfriend in distressing circumstances. He tells all to a silent friend (Isobel Tate) - 'You remind me of her: I see the dead in the living.' It's a powerful piece of emotion, disciplined by a controlled, expressive performance from Reeves.
LAUGHING WILD (Christopher Durang). Emma Taylor plays a New Yorker soliloquising about everything, in the way that New Yorkers do - but more entertainingly than in real life: it's a witty and fast-paced script. There's tuna, and confused oaths. Taylor's character screams at the Greek/Jewish taxi-driver: 'Your mother's sucking socks in Hell', when she means to say something quite different. The piece is complex in language and emotion; Taylor brings it to life with a fine control and expression of emotion - and acute comic timing.
SPLIT DOWN THE MIDDLE (David Campton). Two women sink gradually in a boat, and they're a well-matched comic pair: Josie (Camilla Seely)'s hysterical, and Fran (Isobel Tate)'s quite disturbed. Tate and Seely deliver a delightful two-hander that's completely convincing - one can feel the water Josie feels at her feet - which Fran's going to bale out with her handbag.
AFTER DINNER (Andrew Bovell). A small penis features post-prandially, as Felicity Glencross's character soliloquises to her silent friend at a bistro table. She wakes feeling 'his disgusting little erection in my back.' The unseen he is her late husband Martin: 'When he died I cried. I cried because I didn't lose him sooner.' It's a great piece of acting, we're not sure if she's being comic or dangerously unsettled, which heightens the dramatic tension.
JUNO AND THE PAYCOCK (Sean O'Casey). Joanne Black's the daughter, telling mother Julia John her troubles - she's run-down but nothing more, she feels. It's a piece revealing the subtle layers of emotion that exist within family relationships, and Black - in a lyrical performance - brings out the subtlety of O'Casey's characterisation.
REASONS TO BE FEARFUL (John Random). Two Cockney mothers put the world to rights in a fabulous piece by gifted comedy writer John Random. Samia Rida and Emma Taylor are a wholly convincing pair of Eastenders with verbal dyslexia and a view on everything. Their unseen babes ('Tyson! No! Bad boy!'/'Jamoriquai! I won't bleeding tell you!') misbehave, and the girls press on without missing a beat. Taylor and Rida form a reckless comic duo, batting the lines elegantly one to the other, unleashing an avalache of laughs. It's an undoubted highlight of a strong show.
A CHORUS LINE. Ayla Karol delivers an interesting soliloquy from a chorus line composed of herself and Felicity Glencross, Julia John and Isobel Tate. Karol eloquently evokes the despair of the parade ('I got 10 for dance. For looks, I got 3.') in a performance redolent with inspiration. A fine and moving drama.
HUSH (April De Angelis). Camilla Seely's character is off on her travels: but whether it's from her location or her life that she's travelling, is what this clever piece is about. Seely gives a fine rendering of the mad backpacker delineated in De Angelis's text. She's carrying other baggage than her pack ('I wish I was a lesbian: I'd save myself a lot of trouble'/'I hate men. Not you, Colin, men like Tony.'), and Seely brings out the complexities - and the humour - of the piece.
OURSELVES ALONE (Anne Devlin). Joanne Black, Matt Reeves. Here's an exceptionally strong and equal two-hander, between Black's IRA intelligence office, and Reeves's putative British army defector. It's a strong script, but it's the conviction of the two gifted performances that delivers the punch. Black inhabits the intensity, scepticism and perception of the terrorist character; Reeves delivers the complex emotions of a man either betraying his colleagues, or playing a much subtler game of bluff.
DEMIGOD (Richard Largraves). 'I wanted to apologise for last night, Frank', says Samia Rida's character, opening a profound monologue about desire, madness, and rejection. In the laundrette she imagines she sees his jock-strap filled with him, and shouts to him in the machine: she's asked to leave. He's seeing another woman he picked up on a train platform. It's a towering piece of emotional delivery, finely tuned and delivered with an inspirational elegance.
EAST (Stephen Berkoff). Isobel Tate's character's feet are up on the table. Her expressive eyes emphasise the quirks of Berkoff's complex prose: she wants to be a man - it has advantages. Tate's in her element with Berkoff's text, and brings out its humour - and its dark, brooding resentments.
FACE LIFT (Julia John) Julia John's character's in a waiting room, ready to confront time. It's not liposuction, she's too slim for the suspicion. It's a little light surgery, and all because her husband bought her flowers: so what's he hiding? Whoever she is, John's character's ready for battle, and Mr Maktoun's the surgeon to assist. It's a fine piece of writing - John writes here for her own delivery - tender, perceptive, and funny, both in the text and the evocation.
Cast credits (alpha order): Joanne Black, Felicity Glencross, Julia John, Ayla Karol, Matt Reeves, Samia Rida, Camilla Seely, Isobel Tate, Emma Taylor.
Technical Manager – Peter Malone. Director - Alex Scrivenor. Producers - Carol Fitzpatrick, Katrina Walker. Production Company – Maradadi.
END
John Park
reviewed Thursday 12 December 02 / Jermyn Street Theatre
related topic - interview with EMMA TAYLOR
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
