Theatre Review
Straight to Audience/ Hackney Empire Ltd
Forty
by Angie Le Mar Hackney Empire Until 17 August 2008
A review by Alan Taylor for EXTRA! EXTRA!
Carol’s (Orlessa Atlas) 40th birthday has arrived, and in preparation she has organised a get together with four school friends she hasn’t seen in over 20 years. As the play unfolds, we see how these characters have developed from teenagers to women, what went wrong and where they are now. Will it be an occasion to celebrate or commiserate? The atmosphere of the audience in the Hackney Empire had something very electric about it before the performance even started. I knew I was likely to get carried away in the fervour of the crowd and Angie Le Mar’s Forty provides enough comic timing to carry the emotional weight of the audience. As the plot develops, each character opens up the ‘pain’ that has been kept hidden since the last time they saw each other. Although very structured in its approach with each character taking their ‘turn’ to say their piece, it still has a few surprises by exposing the underlying tensions in the relationships of the women, and how grudges can be a burden for a long time before they are buried. The comic timing is excellent, and I think Le Mar did a great job of casting herself as the cynical Sandra- we’re never sure if we like her or hate her, which is much better than painting yourself as the instant hero of the piece. Carol Moses (who plays Jennifer) is equally strong in her stage presence, providing kick and drive along with the right amount of belief. The women illustrate a very natural and believable progression of a storyline, only knowing as much as they know all the way through. The overall morals of the piece are confused, with many you’ll agree with and some that will give you something to think about. For instance, Forty is great at illustrating how life never turns out how you planned and no matter how competitive or successful you are with old school friends, no one ever wins. In fact, no-one’s life is perfect, but we’re all busy trying hard to pretend it is. Nonetheless, the play does hark back to ‘school days were the best days’, but I would have been much more interested to hear about each character’s journey as it’s not a sentiment I buy into. I read another reviewer who said the staging was ‘pedestrian’ and criticised it for being ‘unpretentious’, well I say does every piece of theatre we see have to be a serious, po-faced and postmodern shocker? This production has so much more going for it, with an audience that really engages and relates to the piece to boot. This is a good dose of reality mixed with a feel good factor containing strong, simple messages. Forty is a piece of new writing that is getting bums on seats, and proves that there is more life in theatre yet!
Forty is playing nightly at 8pm Tickets £17.50 For more information, go to www.hackneyempire.co.uk or call 0208 985 24 24
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