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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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A moving duet to remember
Duet for
One Sutton
Arts Theatre *****
THIS is not what you would call a fun night at the theatre. The laughs,
and there are some, are like commas in a long, long sentence, there to
give you a breather and, for a moment, lighten the mood. Alison Daly and Ken Mackey (above) are superb as the virtuoso violinist Stephanie Abrahams and Dr Alfred Feldman. Abrahams' career has been
ended by multiple sclerosis, shades of Jacqueline Du Pré, and she is
persuaded by her conductor husband Daniel to visit psychiatrist Dr
Feldman to . . . and that is the question? Why is she visiting him? Through his probing we
discover that she hates him for not feeling her pain and then hates him
again when he can understand her. Her mood swings wildly from
enormous enthusiasm teaching promising violinists and helping her
husband as his secretary to the depths of despair and thoughts of
suicide. We can guess her husband, who
is a brilliant composer, the best of his generation, or writes
postmodern rubbish depending upon her mood, is having an affair with his
secretary. And Stephanie is having an
affair with a totter, a scrap metal merchant – affair being a polite
term for what is purely a carnal exercise. It is all part of Stephanie's
attempts to shock, to rail against the world and Daly brings us the
whole range of emotions from the anger, the why me fury
of people struck with terrible diseases, to despair
and great sadness. Perhaps most telling is when
she tries to explain what no longer being able to play the violin means
to her, telling the good doctor that the violin was not a way of life
for her. “The violin is where I live”. In that one line we understand
the anger, the frustration, the resentment and the deep depths of what
Dr Feldmen calls the “dark forces” that are within her and which, he
says, they have to fight together. Mackey, as Feldman, is
understated. A quiet listener, probing with no emotion or reaction in
the early sessions but slowly, prodded by Abrahams, we start to learn
,ore about the doctor, how he feels the pain of his patients and
especially those who commit suicide – and the pain of those they leave
behind.
We learn of his feelings for
his fellow man, his despair at the pain of others and his willingness to
fight with them when the dark forces want them to end it all. And through it all Mackey's
accent never falters. He manages the inflexion and slightly different
emphasis on words and syllables to go with his slight German accent.
This is no “Ve haf vays of making you tock” stuff, but a measured and
whole believable performance Two handers are difficult for
amateur companies. The only advantage is the cast can rehearse in each
other's sitting rooms over coffee and Hobnobs. It needs a lot of work on
the part of the two actors who both have long monologues and different
emotions to display in their two and a half hours on stage. Davina Barnes direction is
economical. The words and emotions are the thing and she makes them the
focus, keeping the pace moving along through the six sessions of Tom
Kempinski's award winning play from 1980. It might not be fun but it is
fascinating stuff, at times funny, at times disturbing and at
times moving with a duet of
performances to remember. Roger Clarke |
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