Good night out presents
The York Realist
Stephen Hagan as George in The York Realist at Riverside Studios Photo by Felix Kunze
by Peter Gill
Directed by Adam Spreadbury-Maher
Riverside Studios
22 September - 11 October, 2009
A review by Alexandra Carey for EXTRA! EXTRA!
The York Realist is the story of two young men who stand on different sides of the shifting social and cultural sands of the early 1960s, and the developing relationship between them. At its best it is a highly charged piece of writing with bucket loads of humour and humanity running beneath the Yorkshire cadences and family bickering. This is Gill on top form and showing his real and powerful feel for the quiet nuances of speech. All of this leaves a very real risk in that the play can descend into tedium - as some reviewers of the original production felt to be the case - but Spreadbury-Maher’s production certainly avoids that pitfall; his lightness of touch keeps the dialogue moving and pulsing with life and it is often very funny. The suppressed emotions which bubble to the surface and fracture the characters as time passes come from deep inside and ring with a striking truth in the very brevity of their expression. George tells John that he doesn’t like to look into things too deeply, and the beauty of this production is in the way the two men evoke the tides of class and allegiance which separate them just by seeing each other across those tides. Stephen Hagan gives a truly powerful performance as farm Labourer George, carrying the play and its measured development; he is strong, tender and utterly trapped inside his own sense of identity. Matthew Burton’s John is naive and idealistic by comparison and although the initial attraction between the two was not entirely convincing, their emerging relationship, reliance on and care for one another was gentle and touching. The supporting cast were strong and well drawn. In particular, Stephanie Fayerman shone as George’s ailing mother full of humour and perception - bringing to life perfectly the battle between traditional values and the new modernity.
Stephanie Fayerman as George's mother and Stephen Hagan as George in The York Realist at Riverside Studios Photo by Felix Kunze One of the most interesting aspects of this play is the way in which its ‘social realism’ is packaged within a structure of shifting time frames - opening up a much more theatrical outer style than may be immediately apparent. To this end, credit must go to Kate Guinness for a design combining a functional and realistic 1960’s interior with a wall-less framing of the space giving it an appropriately modern, floating feel reminiscent of powerhouses of recent realism. The superb sound design by George Dennis also created the impression of something bigger than the detailed world evoked and added bucket loads of emotive theatricality to the piece. This revival certainly does Gill’s great play justice and manages to keep it modern even in its historical truth; it is simple and beautiful and very entertaining.
Stephen Hagan as George in The York Realist at Riverside Studios Photo by Felix Kunze
Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, London W6 9RL Tickets: £14/12 Box Office: 020 8237 1111 Book online at https://www.riversidestudios.co.uk/online/index.php
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