{THEATRE} Reviews
FEDERER VS MURRAY Geopolitics, war and tennis ●●●●●
Any illusion that the tennis match of the title will be at the centre of Gerda Stevenson’s production of her own text is quickly dispelled in this transfer from Oran Mor’s admirable Play, Pie & Pint lunchtime theatre strand. Yet the game plays a significant part in creating a metaphor about national identity in times of strife.
We meet a couple under stress, with Flo’s (Stevenson) hospital porter’s wages supporting Jimmy (Dave Anderson) through redundancy as a worker in a toilet seat factory. As the match in question nears, his allegiance to the Swiss athlete baffles and irritates Flo, but underneath this tension there’s a greater one about the disillusion of a nation, the economic vandalism of neo-liberalism and the death of a son in Afghanistan, whose loss is not unconnected to the former crises.
Trendier critics might dub this an old-fashioned play, with its largely naturalistic action taking place in a working class lounge room, and its discourse connecting personal disintegration with political causality. But to condemn the piece in this way would be to entirely miss the point, for this is work that addresses the consequences of forms of western financial terrorism which have far more powerful effects on ordinary life than bombs or hijacked aircraft, and this (naturalistic) ordinariness of its characters’ pain is what brings all the power and earthy humour to the piece.
So, too, the piece’s observation of quotidian detail, from a
comical accident involving face painting with saltires and would-be Swiss flags to Jimmy’s fetishistic collection of newspaper articles on geopolitical colonialism add to the effect. Both performers work tirelessly and to great effect with the material, which renders intelligible the vast global forces that effect tiny individuals in a manner more telling than any amount of postmodern ‘play’. (Steve Cramer) ■ Assembly Hall, 623 3030, until 29 Aug, 12.30pm, £13–£14 (£12–£13).
E N R O H T A L L U E V E T S
S E N O J S A L G U O D
EMERGENCE Death becomes the Pachamamas ●●●●● AN INSTINCT FOR KINDNESS Dignitas tale told with dignity ●●●●●
MEDEA’S CHILDREN A cautionary tale for divorcing parents ●●●●●
L A V I T S E F
It’s always tricky to deal with grief on stage. By its nature, it is an emotion that comes after the fact, making an audience feel it has missed out on the main event. It cannot be resolved in the way any other dramatic conflict is resolved.
This three-hander by the Pachamamas (not to be confused with Cora Bissett’s similarly named company) sidesteps the problem in two ways. The first is to focus not so much on death itself, but on the passage of time and the moments in life when two people grow apart. It considers the conflicting values of independence and isolation as it depicts the relationship between a Finnish mother living in South America and her English-educated daughter.
The second way is to treat the subject as a physical theatre cabaret. Lorraine Sutherland’s production is inventive and impressionistic, jumping from song, to choreographed movement to dream- like surrealism. The results are uneven but the approach gives variety to a potentially predictable scenario. Even though Emergence doesn’t really have an end (what end could there be?), it is a spirited and diverting show. (Mark Fisher) ■ Underbelly, 226 0000, until 28 Aug, 11.20am, £8.50–£9 (£7.50–£8).
52 THE LIST 25 Aug–22 Sep 2011
Last year, Chris Larner accompanied his ex-wife Allyson to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland and watched as she drank a liquid that would swiftly end her life. Here, with just a simple chair as a prop, Larner recounts the days, weeks and years leading up to that final journey, touching on the physical, emotional and political effects of his wife’s illness and her decision to end her life. There’s no doubting the commitment of Larner’s performance, as he conveys the emotions of himself, Allyson, her sister and their son, George – dry humour creeping in when the reality becomes too raw to bear. Larner, for the most part, manages the balance well, never striving to make a deliberate political statement (though his stance is clear); rather, he lets the politics, the fear and desperation of their story speak for itself. The detail of everything is communicated without sentimentality, from the last phone message from their son, which Allyson will never hear to the tender instruction of the Dignitas nurse. Whatever your personal response is to Allyson’s journey and Larner’s closeness to the story, this is highly moving and engaging theatre. (Anna Millar) ■ Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, until 29 Aug, 4.10pm, £9–£10 (£8–£9).
Lung Ha’s Theatre Company is known for its use of performers with learning difficulties. Teaming up with Swedish company Unga Klara they bring us an exploration of the psychic trauma felt by children affected by divorce. The script, originally written in 1975 by Suzanne Osten and Per Lysander, reimagines the unsettling horror of a family split in terms of the brutal acts Medea visited on her children. Mark Howie and Katrina Merrilees are Jason and Medea, too absorbed in their marriage difficulties to notice the effects on their children (Stephan Tait and the excellent Nicola Tuxworth, who carries a lot of the play). John Kielty and Maria Oller provide supportive roles and narrative bookending as Musician and Nanny, respectively. The play is about children but not really for them.
The inclusion of actors with learning difficulties plays nicely to the theme of including children in discourse about adult topics, rather than harming them with an ostensibly protective silence. As generations are touched by broken marriages Lung Ha’s give us a pacy, funny and thought-provoking production that acts as a cautionary tale to adults. (Suzanne Black) ■ St George’s West, 225 7001, until 29 Aug, 10.30am, £8 (£6).