Theatre
Reviews
Ir'bésrnoveo TRUE «u
Dundee Rep. run ended
Reification is the great issue of the last 100 years in the West. Since mechanisms and machines moved from factory floors into the domestic arena, even our leisurely, more creative hours are taken up by machines, and, inevitably, we come to resemble them ourselves in our asocial, individualistic behaviour. This dysfunction is at the heart of Douglas Maxwell’s new piece for Paines Plough.
In it Vincent (Paul Thomas Hickey) is an impoverished graffiti revolutionary scarred from the moment of his birth by the death of his junkie mother (Cora Bissett). Even by the standards of his town, New Flood (the name seeming to denote a revisiting of Biblical apocalypse), which has just been given a grant foe being the worst town in Scotland, he’s dysfunctional. His on/off partner Ty (David Ireland), whose military background prevents him from fully acknowledging his gayness, and his council apparatchik pal Michael (Keith Fleming) try to persuade him from the stupor his life has sunk into. But what inspires him is his scheme for the town to win the award a second time by becoming even worse. This creates a possibly unconsciously oedipal conflict with the evil, drug dealing chemist Sweeny (Robert Paterson) and his teenage henchman Norman (Alan Tripney), a kind of ned radge of courage.
98 THE LIST -‘«:' ‘.‘.:..
All this is observed by a socially concerned middle- aged woman who is dying of pure loneliness (Ann Louise Ross).
The idea of reducing an already alienated society to further atomisation through the new medium of virtual reality is one explored from David Cronenberg’s early films onwards, but the poetic turn of Maxwell’s language gives this piece a distinctive human edge in front of Neil Warmington’s spartan but very effective design. John Tiffany’s slick direction moves the dark elegy of the language on nicely with some clever physical business, and there are good performances from the cast, particularly Bissett's lost and despairing young mother and Ireland’s confused and tragic boyfriend. Above all, Hickey is absolutely outstanding in the lead, demonstrating nuance and flamboyance in the right measures in his bitter and intelligent artist.
The narrative of Maxwell’s piece is interesting in its rather American tendency to identify a systemic evil, but then blaming it on a particular individual, thereby partially exonerating the structures that produce the problem. On the other hand, this gives us a genuine villain to hate, a rare treat in the contemporary theatre. There is though, so much darkness in the story, that a slightly sentimental and implausible ending doesn’t quite redeem its audience as intended. All the same, Maxwell’s gorgeous language, combined with a strong production, make this a must see, should it return to Scotland. (Steve Cramer)
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