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Unspoken Productions present
The Pink Bedroom
Photo by Alessandro Evangelista
By Tennessee Williams
Directed by Brian Timoney
The Courtyard Theatre, Hoxton
1-27 April, 2008
 ary Couzen
A review by Tanith Lindon for EXTRA! EXTRA!
The Pink Bedroom is the UK Premiere of a collection of four short plays by the prodigious American writer Tennessee Williams, most famous for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Streetcar Named Desire. The production at the Courtyard theatre, Hoxton only runs to just over an hour, so The Pink Bedroom is a perfect tasting plate for the Tennessee-timid.
Considered one of the greatest writers of the last century, Williams’ work tends to follow tragic characters consumed by time and the decay of their relationships or themselves. Recurring themes relate strongly to issues in his own life; the use of drink and drugs to numb reality, depression, mental instability. The first piece in the collection, The Lady of Larkspur Lotion, contains a delusional southern belle whose mental waverings are clearly a nod to both Williams’ fading mother Edwina, and his sister Rose, the latter of whom suffered a failed frontal lobotomy. After the furious barrage wrought by the landlady (Francesca Wilde), the boozy writer next door (played by Robert Goodman) engages in a achingly tender dialogue with Mrs Harwick-Moore (Rita Hamill), whose long overdue rent is dependant on her fortune in a Brazilian Rubber Plantation that overlooks the white cliffs of Dover.
Mister Paradise was a particularly charming story, of a romantic young woman come to rescue her favourite poet out of anonymity. Actress Cordelia Levinson played the girl’s naïve admiration with striking passion, so emotionally charged that her eyes brimmed over with real tears. Caitlin Shannon from Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen, also seemed unusually immersed in her role, exhibiting very hard-to-fake physical signs of stress including blushing and tears, possibly due to method-acting techniques implemented by director Brian Timoney.
The design of the production was creative within the boundaries of a classic style. An innovative three-sided rotating set designed by Alex Maker provoked small squeals of surprised delight from the audience, and efficiently transported us into new, equally intimate locations. Costume designer Ellan Parry dressed the characters with a combination of authenticity and personality, meaning that you understood everything that you needed to know about the characters at a glance. In Mr Paradise for example, the girl wasattired in a soft minty coloured suit, with gravity-defying curls in her hair; her youthful exuberance contrasting immediately with the maturity associated with the writer’s wine-coloured smoking jacket. In addition, the music was particularly well chosen: a kind of deep-south bluesy guitar that punctuated the breaks between plays.
One issue with short plays is that they tend to get to an emotional crisis very quickly, sometimes leaving the audience wanting more plot. The Pink Bedroom does not escape this problem, but the effect of grouping several separate stories together alleviates the pressure from any one in particular. For me, the most complete and satisfying play was the last, which also gave its name to the collection. The Pink Bedroom involves a lingerie-clad blonde, scorned and demanding her rights as mistress. The play encapsulates Williams’ themes of desire, disappointment and loneliness: the man (John Gillespie) is rendered an ‘obscene lump of flesh’ by desire, while the feisty woman (played by Eleanor Lawrence) has sacrificed as much as the absent wife, but has nothing to show for it but a pink bedroom; a sickly oppressive colour that represents love but never truly reflects it. Tennessee Williams does not often write glamour, but he is always truthful.
Photo by Alessandro Evangelista
The Courtyard Theatre, 40 Pitfield Street, London, N1 6EU
0870 163 0717 www.seetickets.com
Tues – Sun 8pm
Tickets £16, £12 Concessions
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