Theatre 503, London
Alice Birch's debut full-length play sets itself up as the gentlest of romances. Ollie is nervous, fearsomely intelligent, and finds people more mysterious than the constellations. The ripely named Juniper Jessop is an optimistic free spirit "actively looking for love", with the heavens mapped out on her bedroom ceiling. If only their paths could cross ... But then there is Meg, heavily pregnant, her mind sharpened to a scalpel point by disappointment and loneliness. Is Ollie destined to make her heart beat for the first time in years? And what about Meg's neighbour, Robert, who likens his wife to a killer whale, and wants his grave stone to say: "He never did it again"?
These four characters may talk incessantly of their hearts, but there is nothing sentimental about the way Birch methodically strips each one bare to reveal what those hearts really contain: fear, self-loathing, anger, hurt. The effect ? subtly enhanced by Sally Ferguson's lighting design ? is akin to looking at the sun in eclipse, golden at the edges, black within. As the four monologues intersect, Birch paints a picture of an atomised society in which people are not nearly as separate as they like to think, and are far more responsible for each other than they are willing to accept.
Birch overplays her hand by having Juniper repeatedly proclaim her belief in the goodness of human nature ? but then comes a queasy moment when you realise Birch has undermined your own faith in that goodness, too. This is a meticulously written play, elegantly performed (particularly by Esther Hall as the flinty Meg), that slowly turns you inside out.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/may/23/many-moons-review
No comments:
Post a Comment