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Curving Road presents
The Next Curve: 2 One Act Plays
by J. D. Smith and Michael Hart
Directed by Ellie Joseph
Old Red Lion Theatre
8 - 26 June 2010
C A review by Alexandra Carey for EXTRA! EXTRA!
Curving Road states its mission as ‘to find, nurture and launch new artists into the public eye’, and The Next Curve has as its focus new writers over the age of 40 who have not previously had work for theatre professionally produced. The result is a double bill made up of two dramatically different plays originating from the US and Scotland which together offer an engaging and entertaining evening of theatre. Dig by J. D. Smith uses the classic Italian-American gangster conceit but flips it on its head with a dash of dark humour and a sprinkling of ineptitude. Somewhere between Lock, Stock and In Bruges, this little play hovers between comedy and darkness, touching surprisingly lightly on some big issues such as ambition, love, immigration and even Aids. It is like a single simple brushstroke, working on the imagination as an impression without needing to explain everything. The broadly drawn characters wouldn’t work on a larger scale or in a longer play but Smith shows great maturity in paring his work down to such simplicity, allowing it to breathe and speak for itself. The haunting and rather beautiful atmosphere of leafless trees and shadows created by Designer Lucy Read and Lighting Designer Mark Jones is similarly restrained and very successfully allows the play to hang between reality and imagination, fear and humour. By contrast Hart’s No More, Salvator is very clearly an imaginary situation as we see the Mona Lisa in witty dialogue with the ghost of Salvator Rosa, artist of the paintings hanging either side of her. This apparently obscure concept is wonderfully brought to life by Hart as he creates bold and amusing characters for these two historical figures and allows them to gently and cleverly mock themselves and their situation. The result is a surprisingly adept vehicle for an exploration of the point of art, the nature of success and the culture of celebrity. Littered with popular references, ranging from Chuck Norris to Posh’s tits, and backed up by a solid and well researched knowledge of art, this is at once a very intelligent and a very endearing play. Stefan D’Bart and Polly Whybrow as artist and painter do a great job of sliding between Renaissance and modern characteristics as the play hovers in a no-man’s land between culture, and there are some flashes of real physical comic genius. These two plays are really very satisfying. They are gentle and uncomplicated, but all the more affecting for that. This is a great example of new and interesting theatre which hasn’t lost its roots in solid storytelling, and probably reflects the maturity and experience of both these writers, as well as Curving Road’s artistic team. I hope the company continues to bring us productions with such values in the future.
The Old Red Lion Tues - Fri 7.30pm (Sat: 5.30, 8.00 Sun: 3.00) Tickets: £13/£11 Box Office: 02078377816
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Copyright © EXTRA! EXTRA All rights reserved
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