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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Blackwater Angel
Verdict: Multi-layered redemption drama
Tues - Sat 19:30 (22:00) ; Sun 15:30 (18:00)
Blackwater Angel by Jim Nolan is an historical drama with a cast of eleven (6M, 5F), making its UK debut. It runs two-and-a-half hours, with one interval of fifteen minutes.
It is based on the life of Valentine Greatrakes, an Irishman who attracted notice in the seventeenth century for his faith-healing. The set consists of two wood-panelled flats, a dining table, a bench and chairs - usually suggesting the Greatrakes’ dining room, but at other times, with delicate reconfiguration of lighting, evoking a barn, a forest, or simply a stage.
As Séan Campion (Valentine Greatrakes) walks into the light, purring an introductory monologue, his calm, commanding voice quickly draws the audience into his character’s plight. Greatrakes is struggling with the obligations that come with being a blessed man, and worse, the diminishing faith that comes with losing his gifts. This might seem like an obscure story to tell, one that is distanced by both history and the assumption (within a biographical, factual context) that miracles happen. However, the production succeeds in making this story personal and widely pertinent. The script contains a rich assortment of themes which may fascinate the philosophically- or spiritually-inclined.
One of the more interesting themes is the healing power of theatre itself. For the travelling players Eustacia Everard (Vicky Ogden) and Mathias Everard (Kevin Colson), it is a reason for living. As Greatrakes grows disenchanted with a God that, he thinks, casually grants and denies miracles for sport, he searches for a surrogate religion in the theatre troupe and their enchanting found child, Angel Landy.
Fiona O’Shaughnessy seems not-of-this world in the role of Angel. It is easy to see how Greatrakes would become obsessed with her voice, which simultaneously calls him to re-gain his lost innocence and, perhaps, into sexual temptation. Her song, echoed in the sound design but never repeated in whole, is effective in haunting the piece as it haunts Greatrakes. At other times, the sound mix reflects the difficulty of suggesting a historical setting while sounding original.
Catherine Walker delivers Ruth Greatrakes as a spirited model of womanly strength while her husband is preoccupied with his reputation. Her characterisation subtly suggests someone involved in circumstances greater than herself.
Stephen Cavanagh, Laura Pyper, and Joseph Rye seem to begin the play as decorative servant characters, but throughout the play each finds an individual voice of impassioned morality. It is a credit to the text as well as the performances that none of the characters is left one-dimensional.
Just as Valentine Greatrakes's miracles came with a personal price, so the tackling of so many questions comes with a price of heaviness. The central thread of the play is Greatrakes's own quest for healing. His weariness, frustration, and guilt, ripple outwards to his family and servants and to the thousands of diseased or crippled others who come to him with their last hopes for salvation. Inevitably these feelings are exhausting for an audience as well. There is a lot of arguing, and many grand moral assertions which sound even grander in the 17th-Century-flavored dialect.
Yet, each actor has a chance to shine - and they do - as Jim Nolan's writing evokes the sheer electricity of good theatre.
Cast Credits: (alpha order): Séan Campion - Valentine Greatrakes. Stephen Cavanagh - Michael Maher. Kevin Colson - Mathias Everard. Ríona Kearney - Travelling Player / Ellen Reilly. Aaron McCusker - Travelling Player / Martin Reilly. Michael Nersisyan - Travelling Player. Vicky Ogden - Eustacia Everard. Fiona O’Shaughnessy - Angel Landy. Laura Pyper - Lizzie Maher. Joseph Rye - Thomas Wyvern. Catherine Walker - Ruth Greatrakes.
Company Credits: Writer - Jim Nolan. Director - Mark Glesser. Designer - John Scheffler. Associate Designer - Alex Marker. Lighting - Petter Skramstad. Associate Lighting Designer - Peter Bruus. Composer - Joe Townsend. Costume Design - Nell Knudsen. Costume Assistants - Sarah Burton, Liv Murton, Fiona Slater. Assistant Director - Kate Wasserberg. Casting - Julie Harkin CDG. Stage Management - Lucy Simmonds. Assistant Stage Managers - Sam VanSluytman, Julie Burfoot, Paula Henry. Producer - Neil McPherson; also Alces Productions & Concordance. Press Representative - Sue Hyman Associates (020 7379 8420). Photography - Marilyn Kingwill & Jessica Brown. Leaflet Distribution - London Calling. Intern - Kate Tegmeyer. Set Construction - Hazel Ashworth, Alison Gregory, Steven Redman. Costume Hire - Paul at Birmingham Costume Hire. Finborough Theatre: Artistic Director - Neil McPherson. Resident Company - Concordance www.concordance.co.uk. Associate Companies - Shapeshifter, Floodtide. Associate Designer - Alex Marker. Pearson Playwright-in-Residence - James Graham. The Finborough Theatre has the support of The Pearson Playwrights’ Scheme, sponsored by Peggy Ramsay Foundation. Playwrights-in-Residence - David Carter, Laura Wade, Samantha Wright. Development Producer - Marie Bobin. Chief Electrician - Nicolas Amiel.
END
(c) Jeni Morrison 2006
reviewed 3 February 06 Finborough
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
