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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Breathing
Verdict: Taut drama
Breathing is a one-act drama set in Texas towards the end of the last century (writes Annabelle Joyce). It runs for around an hour and 45 minutes. It's set on a beach.
A young black man (Joe) and white woman (Kelly) become sexually involved. They have to deal with the reaction of their respective communities while coping with the tensions in their relationship. Kelly wants to discover the world, Joe's more of a home-lover. Kelly doesn't want to end up like her mum (Marie), and the people
she knows - who are, as she puts it, only good at spreading their legs, making babies, and making trouble. But that looks to be her destination. She becomes pregnant with Joe's child.
The dramatic events that follow impact most heavily on the mothers. Marie gives moral support to Joe's mother, Gloria. It's perhaps her way of making up for her inadequacies as Kelly's parent - although outwardly she professes the opposite. The two women are thrust together by a situation over which they have no control.
Lauren Fales brings to life the frustration and despair of Kelly's longing for more than is offered by the wretchedness of her existence. Darren Hart evokes the beguiling facade of Joe's apparent calmness.
The relationship between the two mothers forms the centre of the drama. Although
Nichollette Collins brings a calmness to Gloria's characterisation, it is sometimes at the expense of depth.
Paddy Nevin delivers the night's outstanding performance. She creates a Marie who is earthy, and passionate in
her guilt-ridden heartache.
The triumph of Breathing - a piece of new writing, by Jennifer Farmer - is its profound depiction of maternal
relationships - between the mothers, and the mothers and their children; the relationships they have in reality, and those they'd like to have, if time could be changed. The power of the script is the subtlety with which it locks the act of breathing to the actions unfolding on stage.
Cast Credits (alpha order): Nichollette Collins - Gloria, Lauren Fales - Kelly, Darren Hart - Joe, Paddy Nevin - Marie.
Company Credits: Writer - Jennifer Farmer. Director - Paul Higgins.
Credits - Latchmere Theatre: Technical Managers - Matt Bristo, Nick Hayman-Joyce. Literary Associate - Abigail Gonda. Associate Artist - Jennifer MacDonald. Associate Director - Phil Hewitt. Associate Director - Johnnie Lyne-Pirkis. Artistic Director - Paul Higgins.
END
Annabelle Joyce
reviewed Tuesday 4 November 03 / Latchmere Theatre
(c) Annabelle Joyce
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
