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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Shirley And The Devereauxs
Verdict: Lively relationship drama
London - ArtsEd - 13-16 June 05 - 19:30 (22:00)
Shirley And The Devereauxs is drama about relationships from a cast of 6 (3F 3M) and 4 extras (4M). It's in 2 acts with interval, around 2.5 hours total, set in Scotland and London from 1987 to 2003.
On the surface it's a class drama with Scots Shirley King (Stephanie Farrell) colliding with English brothers and sister Sebastian Devereaux (Stephen Andrews), Christian Devereaux (Merric Boyd) & Lena Devereaux (Alexis Peterman); working-class English Iain Stewart (Chris Twiselton) and American Claudia Crompton Mott (Sarah Shavel) join in. As in the best fiction, the Scottish and working class characters are down-to- and salt-of- the earth. They ripple with ee-bah-mcgum trustworthiness, canniness, and all-round integrity. The English are upper-class, selfish, mad, and their family is odd. The American is rude, me-centred and barking. But beneath the stereotypes, it's subtle, intriguing, poignant and endearing.
Sebastian Devereaux and Shirley King meet on the beach of a Scottish island in 1987. They're 17, he's a would-be artist, her alcoholic father's just committed suicide, her mother's already dead. Shirley's obsessed with Sebastian, and it's partly reciprocated. He invites her to his absent parents' house to meet his director brother Christian, flamboyant actress sister Lena, her boyfriend actor Iain. Shirley's shy, but hooked - by Sebastian, by the Devereauxs.
Sebastian takes Shirley to London to live with his sister Lena, he leaves. Over the years, Shirley becomes an accomplished playwright, Lena leaves Iain, Shirley and Iain continue to share a flat. Christian marries American Claudia, divorces, marries Shirley. There are reports of Sebastian's life abroad, fragments, he stays on the move drinking, painting, drinking. Shirley's love, need, or obsession for him remains constant. The death of the Devereauxs' father brings the return of Sebastian. Will Shirley and Sebastian finally find love for each another?
Stephanie Farrell's role as Shirley is the central thread, and her performance is mesmeric. What could easily be caricature is, in her hands, moving and powerful. Shirley's final scene includes the release of all her pent-up feelings; Stephanie Farrell delivers these full-force without a fragment of over-playing, giving total conviction to a scene of frightening emotional intensity. In each of her scenes, she's pure delight to watch and hear; it's a performance of subtlety, conviction, and visual poetry.
Stephen Andrews evokes in Sebastian Devereaux a flavour of the great tragic alcoholics of fiction - the writer hero of Malcolm Lowry's searing Under the Volcano, or Graham Greene's Honorary Consul. He's wan, self-contained but expansive, selfish but sometimes kind, careless of others but caring, cold and a storm of emotions, shot through by a terrible sadness. Stephen Andrews exposes these complexities with style, it's a strong and elegant performance.
Sarah Shavel has the complex part of Claudia Crompton Mott. Claudia is extremely rude and uncaring, brash, self-centred - a typical American to many people. Sarah Shavel delivers Claudia's cartoon-like first scene with great panache - it's a fine piece of comic acting and very funny. She progressively transforms the character into the realm of the real, and creates from her someone with heart and soul. It's a subtle, mischievous, powerful and - as she exposes the human side of the character - endearing and achingly vulnerable portrayal, delivered with grace.
Merric Boyd's Christian Devereaux is an intriguing mixture of ambition, coldness, and affection. It's an exceptionally well-written part, and Merric Boyd finds - and adds to - all of the writing's subtlety. He creates an attractive character, a man with guile, but the kind of man who's more usually forgiven than hated - a very clever piece of delivery that's a delight of fine performance and elegant delivery.
Chris Twiselton's clumsy and malleable Iain Stewart weaves in and out of the storyline - the kind of person ever on the edges of other people's lives. His Iain is well-meaning and born to lose - a familiar character in many people's lives - usually loved but fractionally despised. Chris Twiselton creates this person exactly; at times funny; at times wet beyond sympathy; stupid just beyond credibility. Iain is cartoon-thin, and Chris Twiselton's gifted and witty portrayal sensibly runs with the writing rather than fighting it, and produces a wholly delightful result.
Alexis Peterman delivers Lena Devereaux with style and a strong sense of the character's outrageous comedy. Lena's defines self-obsession to a point well beyond stereotype; spoilt, upper-class, selfish, the delineation of Lena is like thumbing through a lexicon of social chippiness. Alexis Peterman dives right in and produces a comedy storm, a character so grotesque and memorable that there's a terrifying feeling left in her wake that somewhere her Lena might exist in life. Alexis Peterman's Lena as St Joan at a dinner party is sublime - outrageously over-the-top, embarrassing, very funny - and chilling.
Waiters, removal men and scene shifters are played enjoyably by Costa Chard, Dar Dash, Gary Hunt, Daniel Moulson.
It's an auteur play written and directed by Sarah Wooley; tonight is the world premiere. There is some elegant direction, particularly a couple of accelerated-time sequences. Combining direction and writing can sometimes be both useful and problematic, but seems to work well here. The writing, in any case, dominates - it's a very strong play.
Shirley And The Devereauxs uses a solid theatrical model - setting up stereotypes to get the audience fast into the story - then doing unexpected things with the characters. In writer Sarah Wooley's hands, the Devereauxs turn out to be not nearly so bad as at first threatened; ie pretty much as bad as any other family. The other characters have more to them than they first promise - quirks, vulnerability and pure shock bleed satisfyingly from them. The parts of Shirley and Christian in particular are astonishing in their writing, and its profound evocation of humanity. There are some very fine lines. There's some utterly shameless exposition - what feels like 20% of the play is narrative from characters' mouths; in the last scene it nudges towards the 100 mark. Some of the characters some of the time go less than one-dimensional. The last stanza of the play opts for a fingers-down-throat sentimentally limp ending that collides with the story.
But none of this matters. Shirley And The Devereauxs is pure joy. It bounds along, there are stunning performances from a highly-skilled and delightful cast. At last a writer who understands human relationships - and how to write theatre. Why can't all plays be like this?
Cast Credits: (alpha order): Stephen Andrews - Sebastian Devereaux. Merric Boyd - Christian Devereaux. Stephanie Farrell - Shirley King. Alexis Peterman - Lena Devereaux. Sarah Shavel - Claudia Crompton Mott. Chris Twiselton - Iain Stewart. (other roles by, alpha order): Costa Chard. Dar Dash. Gary Hunt. Daniel Moulson.
Company Credits: Writer - Sarah Wooley. Director - Sarah Wooley. Designer - Naomi Dawson. Lighting Designer - Anna Watson. Assistant Director - Scott Le Crass. Voice/Dialect Coach - Elspeth Morrison. Production Manager - Di Stedman. Deputy Stage Manager - Marion Auer. Wardrobe Supervisor - Åse Amy Djärf. Wardrobe Assistant - Marianne Harwich. Scenic Construction Manager - Colm Pádraig Daly. Scenic Construction - Felix Trelford. Sound Technician - Errol van-de-l'Isle. Chief Electrician - Marc Callaghan. Electrician - James Penry. Scenic Painting - Sam Steer. Scenic Painting - Sam Dowd. Sound Operator - Hannah Kew. Front Of House Manager - Andy Scott. Production Photography - Richard Andersen. Thanks: Elizabeth Abusch, Janette Smith, Matthew Frankland-Coombes, Amy Schindler, Ian Midlaine, Vanessa Havel, Ed Hughes, Melissa Woodbridge, Jenny Worton, Lord Clyde Writers Group. ArtsEd London: Iain Reid - Dean. Jane Harrison - Director, School of Acting.
END
John Park
reviewed Monday 13 June 05 / ArtsEd
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
