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The hip-hop impro duo work 2012 comedy highlights into a freestyle rap.
The Shakespeare Olympics begin April 22 at the Globe
© Alison Baskerville
There is nothing out there', states Richard (Simon Thorp) at one point in Martin Crimp's eerily elliptical 2000 play'. Amelia Nicholson's revival takes that statement literally: beyond designer Anna Bliss Scully's claustrophobic ring of trees there is only inky darkness; inside is a wan pool of light, the new rural abode of self-possessed Richard and his skittish wife, Corinne (Amana Root).
When they and Rebecca (Naomi Wattis) - a coolly toxic ghost from Richard's past - discuss 'back home' and 'the city', they roll the words around their mouths like exotic sweets, savouring the sound and textures but never finding any meaning; whether or not it is relevant that this is 'the country', they are sundered from the world.
Crimp's play is a very savage satire on the middle-class dream of 'getting away from it all'. Crimp gifts his characters lines that are tart and piquantly absurd. Yet while there are laughs, both play and production are defined by a sense of menace and dislocation.It becomes apparent that the words the three have shared changed nothing, beguiling though they were.
If Nicholson's production stumbles into more than one in the round pitfall - blocked sightlines, awkwardly positioned actors - the cast is mostly exemplary, inhabiting the sinister nonsequiturs with virtuoso precision. Wattis's Rebecca is particularly impressive, her voice and eyes simultaneously glazed with boredom and ablaze with hatred.This is a bleakly eloquent portrait of three people chasing each other in the dark,forever.
Oh my dayz that review is badd! I checked the play after redin dat it was decent you no. Chea mate.
As soon as I walked into the round I felt an overwhelming sense of space in a darkened forest with the near distance lit by light flooding out of the house windows and the far distance pitch black. Cleverly positioned tree members of various species spanning floor to ceiling like a perfectly cropped photo.
Looking onto the round with %1 of my field of vision blocked by the centre stage signature and old friend column of the Arcola I was completely transfixed by every line, word, facial expression and body language lexicon, all generating layer upon layer of depth to the fraught exchanges between a couple in love, one with a habit and the other with worries for their future due to a lack of his control over it.
Directed with finesse by Nicholson, our freshest and international talent, in a super real manner with incredibly difficult cues cut ins and phone conversations so believably executed one could almost hear the other side in ones head. Tricky unfinished sentences and miscommunications highlighting the papered cracks in the utopian public face of their children blessed life. The sinister nature of the other woman, the third member of the couple, a victim of abuse, questions ones own predjudiced assumptions on hearing of and then meeting someone with a bag is full of needles, a street prostitute or diabetic student?
This play takes one through every relationship emotion from love and laughter to tears and creeping horror in the wifes realisation that all is not as it seems on the face of her husbands crumbling facade of lies and professional misconduct.
There was not a single moment I was not on the edge of my seat, reading signs from every part of the set, props and lighting perfectly giving us times of day and a sense of driving full beam in the country lanes, while listening intently at dialogue of the highest grade of writing quality. Mundane on the one hand and some have said boring but maybe thats only because exchanges within couples long term relationships have here been so perfectly researched documented and recreated to some it is indeed like another night with the wife in front of the telly.
This is acting in its highest art form. You must see this play and if one sees something one recognises, take what you learn back to your domestic bliss for the mutual benefit of you and your love.
Fantastic production and superbly executed by both the actors and director! I am having difficulty in deciphering the pseudo intellectual review which does Time Out no favours so suggest just going to see the play with 4 stars!
Wow! Went to see this last night, fantastic! The audience were gripped for the whole 90 minutes (no interval so a short evening which is great as The Arcola is a bit far being in Dalston). The actors are all very believable, real so we feel their emotion. I went from gasps of shock to near tears and then laughter, certainly got my money's worth! Go see it.
Superb acting in this thrilling play by Martin Crimp. The plot gradually unravells and provides a brilliant night of theatre - a rare treat these days. Simon Thorp and Amanda Root shine in Amelia Nicholson's excellent production.
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