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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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Doubly Absurd Contractions and The American Dream Highbury Theatre Centre *** HIGHBURY fill their diminutive studio
space this week with not one but two short One Act plays in the style of
Theatre Absurd. The first is Contractions by Mike Bartlett.
Billed as an `Ink black comedy', it has to be said that much of the
early conversation in this employee versus manager scenario is chilling
truthful. The Manager (Shelia Knapman) and Employee Emma
(Hannah Parry) start out on what seems like a casual chat about Emma's
status in the office and progress to a grotesque and Orwellian ending
over the period of about an hour. There's laughter but most people don't
know why as the manager delivers a series of ever more controlling
questions till Emma is literally straightjacketed into submission.
Knapman and Parry did an excellent job in building the surreal tension
with Knapman calmly allowing Bartlett's needle sharp text to do the work
of creating, then burying Emma's highly emotional tragedy with her
corporate ridicule. SECONDS OUT In the second half of the evening we get The
American Dream by Edward Albee. Albee's play is, on the
surface, a simple snapshot from a slightly odd 60s American family. It
is in fact a far more surreal portrait in that it exposes the
superficial condition of living the perfect American life. In its short
running time it manages to highlight subjects such as the emancipation
of men, the disregard for the old, the obsession for the perfect child
and punishment of the wayward, greed ,materialism , death and the veneer
of fake social status. It is perhaps the giant task of mastering this
overload of detail that was sometimes lost in this production directed
by Liz Parry as each of the characters needed more of an exaggeration to
highlight their cartoon qualities. Best and most consistent in her Americana was
Claire Armstrong Mills as Grandma. Mills was as every bit effective in
the role as Sophia in the Golden Girls TV series, continually ambling
about with her wise cracks and deceptive wiliness. Alison Cahill as Mommy was good too with her
cutting small town ladies institute thinking and an undercurrent of
vicious spite. The two plays together worked well as an
evening's studio production and whilst completely different offer the
audience the chance to witness this extreme form of playwriting in
action. If you are looking for things to make perfect
real sense, have a valid point and a conclusion then you won't easily
find them here. You can rest assured though that across this collection
of corporate and family charters you will to a lesser or greater degree,
either have encountered, been one of them yourself or know someone like
it and in reality that's just absurd. Jeff Grant |
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