Theatre Review
Bush Theatre with Jerwood Space and AKA The Broken Space Season
Bush Theatre
6 - 25 October 2008
A review by Alan Taylor for EXTRA! EXTRA!
What do you do when your theatre is flooded and the lights don’t work? Well, why not use it as an opportunity to create a different space and showcase some new work at the same time? The Bush Theatre presents an evening of 3 mini plays that will be rotating throughout the season to give theatre-goers a taste of the new talent that the Bush Theatre is developing. First up was Sea Wall by Simon Stephens- a tale of a man who loses his daughter in a tragic seaside accident. It was one shaky decision to have the actor, Andrew Scott, waiting there as the audience came in because by the time everyone had stopped fidgeting, the front of house staff had made sure everyone was in and everyone had decided to be quiet (a period of about 15-20 minutes), the energy levels were so low that being roused by Stephens’ emotive dialogue was almost impossible. Though well executed by the very natural and fumble-y Scott, it wasn’t until the end that I was tainted with emotion after being drained by the waiting beforehand. However, an excellent dialogue with a natural and logical progression that doesn’t give us time to question it, showing a true self awareness and quality of writing. The second play is the only constant of this season- St. Petersburg by Declan Feenan. Very real and well developed, this is a story of an old man whose wife left him years ago, but is reacquainted with his old daughter. The touching domesticity of this play is its heart, and the thing that makes it so real is the willingness of the characters to downplay their more dramatic emotions. Geoffrey Hutchings is perfect as the lead Scott, who we’re never quite sure is an alcoholic, fed up, or loveable with a great heart. Complemented well by Mairead McKinley, this play could have been so easily ruined by a cod Irish word or two. Instead its beauty comes through. Slightly overlong, Feenan could have chopped off the end scene and it still would have retained its poignancy, but felt the need to give us ‘a conclusion’. The last one of the evening was He Said by Mike Bartlett. Taking place in a muddy cemetery at night, the Bush studio is transformed with muddy woodchip and damp canvas. John Ramm puts in a strong performance with conviction, but there was something lacking in the dramatic tension that didn’t give way to the overtly scary and downright creepier elements of this play. It felt as though Bartlett kept us at arm’s length, then, tried to draw us right into his chest with no obvious follow through and no build up. Novel staging and a good concept, it just needed to know where it was going, and not to waffle or to lead us too quickly to the conclusion. Bartlett would have been better to play on the insanity and absurdity rather than taking the audience through a basic plot and a logical conclusion. If you’re a fan of new writing, this is a good way to get more than one play in one go. I felt it was slightly long, with the intervals between plays extending the night even further. It is definitely a ‘destination night’. Anyhow, I admire the inventiveness of the Bush Theatre to laugh in the face of adversity and come up with a way to use the space with the least of equipment. And with the plays cycling, it’s never the same night twice! An opportunity to see the Bush outside its traditional staging whilst getting the best of new British writing. The Broken Space Season is running Performance time: 7.30pm For more info, go to http://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/
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