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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Claw
Verdict: Stunning drama of corruption
London - Greenwich Playhouse - March/April 03
18 March - 13 April 03
Claw is a pungent story of corruption and destruction. Corruption of one man (Noel Biledew - exhileratingly played by Tom Bacon), and of our society. Destruction of the victims of corruption, and of our belief in the triumph of good. It's a thoroughly nasty tale with an aftertaste of vomit. It's hugely enjoyable.
Claw is also a stunning demonstration of the power of the three-act play. Fashionable in the 50s, the form's fallen through the trap-door. West-End productions, normally full-evening events, are now often 2-act, one-interval shows. Small theatre or fringe plays are typically one-hour one-act. The benefit, when coupled with writing excellence, is a sharp increase in dramatic tension.
We expect plays to offer us the same pace and frisson as cinema or tv, and the leisurely build-up of the 1950s three-acter is a casualty. But in the hands of an expert - here the remarkable political writer Howard Barker - the 3-part format can strike like an axe.
Noel Biledew (Tom Bacon) is the illegitimate son with glasses of loose and adaptable Mrs Biledew (Imogen Dobbs), conceived in the Second World War during Mr Victor Biledew (Stephen Davy)'s absence as a prisoner-of-war.
Loathed by his stepfather ('You ruined my happiness'), bullied at school ('I'm used to being hated'), he grows up a pimp. Victor's unable to have children after being kicked by a camp guard, and turns to Communism, advising Noel to do the same ('Don't waste your anger - use it for the workers. Boys with glasses will be loved - even by their cuckolded stepfathers').
Noel finds a use for the Party - he hires out comrade Nora (Susie Emmett) as a prostitute ('What's your considered opinion of free love?' / 'Favourable') in a disastrous encounter with a bent policeman (Adrian Clargo) who rapes Nora and beats up Noel.
It's an epiphany for Noel. He'll never be struck again. 'I'll be a great Claw. I'll claw them first'. And so the monster is created.
It's tea at Fortnum and Mason for a more prosperous Noel/Claw and his mum - now with a fox-fur stole. Waitress Christine (Sara Kewly)'s recruited as a new tart ('Show me your thighs. Can you simulate an orgasm?').
And all in front of Mum, who's now to call him Claw. Step-dad doesn't approve ('Bastard!'), crowns Claw with a portrait of Karl Marx. He's sentenced to 7 years, and sings the Red Flag as he's taken down. Mum says she'll visit.
Claw's expanding to Chelsea 'The Love Nest of Her Majesty's Government', which earns him a shooting by a couple of Mafia assassins (Edward Rees and Adrian Clargo) - except that it's Mum who gets shot. Nora's called to dress the wound, and watching her do it, Claw experiences his first sexual arousal ('I'm not ashamed to admit - I'm a virgin'), but Nora's not having it him. Mum dies.
Claw crashes a motorbike, believing himself to be TE Lawrence of Arabia. He writes to Vic in jail. 'Revolutionaries are the tallow in the candle of our dreams', Vic advises. 'Have love Noel, have love.' It's the end of Act One.
Act Two opens with David Bowie's 'Pretty Things' ('driving your mama and papa insane') over. On stage there's suave Home Secretary Georgie Clapcott (Martin Ritchie), reclining on a chaise in his smart Chelsea flat. He's idling through a list of possible sentence reductions ('I remember you. "Castrate the judge". You can stay and rot').
He's surpised by separated sexy wife Angie (Tara Lester) in fur coat and low-cut red dress who wants to stay. No she can't, he has a visitor, and she has a cottage he's provided for her own sexual liaisons.
He's taken her from nothing ('Third from the left in the chorus line of Carousel') and regretted it - the shaky marriage cost him the Treasury. She hides as the visitor enters. Georgie gets drinks. It's Claw.
New Claw. He's smart in suit, dark glasses, with briefcase containing a portfolio of women ('In a word, big tits. Rosie, she's a graduate. Common Stacy. Lindsay, Annabel. Nora - spoils the catalogue, body like a rabbit's arse'). Georgie gets interested.
Angie decides to come out of hiding, and look through the book - but it's Claw she's after. It's honesty from the start ('I was called Myrtle Ackroyd, changed it to Angie. What do you call yourself?' / 'A pimp'.) Claw's smitten ('I wanted to bite her arse') and leaves ('I left the white slug's drawing room').
They shag in a lay-by behind Claw's motor-bike, Angie in his leather jacket. They're surprised by a police officer (Edward Rees), Claw runs him down, leaves him for dead, but the officer grabs their number plate.
Angie and Claw find a cheap café. The waitress throws a drink at him. It's Christine, 7 years later, pregnant, and downhill. Claw's reaping the whirlwind.
What's a girl to do? Angie goes to husband Georgie. He's furious, but they make a deal - she's to finish with Claw. The sound track's 'I love you for sentimental reasons'. Georgie makes the call to rub out the prosecution. Claw saunters in, misjudging. He's got the girl, he's got the minister over a barrel.
He'll go to the papers.
There's a gun, there's a struggle. Enter Special Branch (Edward Rees) - Claw's removed, and he certainly can't go to jail. Georgie and Angie are alone, suddenly a perfect pairing - and they're the same class. ('After all the men I've been with, no-one can twist my womb like you.' / 'I'll book a table. Shall we eat?'). It's the end of Act Two.
The horrific twist to Claw's tale, and the climax of his odyssey, forms the content of Act Three. It's a three-hander between Tom Bacon's Claw, and new characters Lily (Adrian Clargo) and Lusby (Edward Rees). The denouement is shocking, apt, electric, and final.
Claw runs on a script of compelling and elegant construction.
Act One establishes a nucleus of characters, their back-story, and possible future.
Act Two introduces the new location and characters that create the central drama of the play, and switches power between the players to the manipulations of fate.
Act Three visits a new place, with new people, that power the play to its summit.
Each of the acts has a well-constructed purpose; each is self-contained yet builds on the one before to rack-up the dramatic tension. Each of the sharp changes in the story is unexpected - but in retrospect fully consistent and logical.
It's an extraordinary work of plot-construction, brought to life by stunning performances, and taut (and funny) dialogue stripped to the essence, without a speck of cliché.
Tom Bacon towers as Claw. It's a remarkable performance, subtle and tight, by an actor able to birth as flesh the monumental requirements of the script. He produces a living human being - depraved, and, despite his inital innocence, wholly corrupt and almost wholly evil.
Martin Ritchie's a Clapcott oozing charisma, the balance and opposition of Claw, and nemesis. He exudes the oil required of the character, but also his cunning manipulative intelligence, producing a fully-rounded figure.
Tara Lester's Angie subtly counterpoints this pairing, forming the third apex of the plot's central triangle. She launches Angie from the start as a powerful force, at the same time making her vulnerable, credible in her complex social position, and human.
It's given to Imogen Dobbs (Mrs Biledew) to set the story in motion and provide the genesis for Noel's complex development. She does this by creating a Mrs Biledew who is convincing in each of her stages of evolution (the character is seen over 30 years), with a warmth (and persuasive sensuality) to her cruelty and insouciance that makes her believable.
The relationship between Mrs Biledew and Noel/Claw, and with husband Victor, forms another tight triangle to the construction of the story.
Stephen Davy's Victor Biledew is a fine creation by a gifted actor. The script requires some surprising developments in the character, and Stephen Davy masters them effortlessly, producing a stepfather tortured by living dreams, combined with strength in adversity - a quirky, almost saintly figure.
Susie Emmett's a glorious Nora. Packed with subtlety, her characterisation releases Nora's parcelled sexuality and emotional complexity (there are no cardboard figures in the writing). There is a decency in Nora, necessary to fill that lacking in most of the other characters, and Susie Emmett's skill reveals it.
Sara Kewly conjures a rounded Christine in her two principal scenes, turning a character who could be just a cipher into a vibrant and passionate woman integral to Claw's ascent and bitter fall.
The play runs on an engine of threat, malice and cold fear. These are provided by two remarkable actors, working separately and in tandem.
Adrian Clargo is a corrupt Policeman of inspirationally thuggish brutality - a role that's vital to the setting-up of the story. He's a fine Second Assassin, oozing menace. He's a stunningly manic Lily.
Edward Rees is a horrific First Assassin. He's a subtle Police Motorcyclist, and a Special Branch Officer exactly and perfectly played. He's a brooding Lusby full of madness and cruelty.
Adrian Clargo and Edward Rees deliver their individual scenes with panache. Their scenes as a pair are inspirational pieces of acting, feeding off each other with a subtlety that lifts the play onto a higher plane of spine-freezing moral shock.
Claw benefits from sets that exactly locate and complement the action - excellence from designers Sarah Turner and Alexander Costello. Lighting Designer Peter Harrison lights the play with subtle and dramatic counterpoint to the mood and action.
Director Jonathan Loe fully understands and executes Howard Barker's monumental script so that we're able to also - a remarkable task, delivered without fault, with an exhuberant élan.
Claw is Producer Alex Gaumond's first major release. An experienced actor, he shows here a flair for picking a challenging script, and delivering it as an entertainment. Most would baulk at tackling such a complicated and formidable drama at any point in their career. Its triumph is a testament to his courage in doing so, and panache in pulling it off to such spectacular effect.
Credits - Cast (alpha order): Tom Bacon (Noel Biledew). Adrian Clargo (Policeman, Second Assassin, Lily). Stephen Davy (Victor Biledew). Imogen Dobbs (Mrs Biledew). Susie Emmett (Nora). Sara Kewly (Christine). Tara Lester (Angie). Edward Rees (First Assassin, Police Motorcyclist, Special Branch Officer, Lusby). Martin Ritchie (Georgie Clapcott).
Credits - Company (programme order): Director - Jonathan Loe. Assistant Director - Sara Kewly. Stage Manager - Elizabeth Buckeridge. Set Designers - Sarah Turner and Alexander Costello. Lighting Designer - Peter Harrison. Graphic Designer - Lindsey Kelman. Photography - Natalie Hawthorne. Press Representatives - Kevin Wilson and Mark White (KWPR). Producer - Alex Gaumond. Company - Kazida Productions Ltd. Writer - Howard Barker. Artistic Director Greenwich Playhouse - Alice de Sousa.
Acknowledgements: Staff (St Christopher's Inn). Scott Morris (Century 23). Gemma Woolford (Impact). Guy Davy (The Mill Studio). Westminster Eyecare Centre. James Seabright. Richard Costello. Carol Dean and Wardrobe staff (GSA). Jacqui George (GSA). Richard Lee and all staff (The Jerwood Space). Alice de Sousa (Greenwich Playhouse). Colin Plumridge (Cameo Bathrooms). Gary Willis. Lindsey Kelman. Natalie Hawthorne. Kevin (Identity).
END
John Park
reviewed 11 April 03 / Greenwich Playhouse
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
