Tag Archives: Christopher Nairne

Tumulus
★★★★

Soho Theatre

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Tumulus

Tumulus

Soho Theatre

Reviewed – 18th April 2019

★★★★

 

“it grips its audience immediately and has us on the edge of our seats”

 

It’s a Saturday night in April and Anthony is in a flat with eight or so other men that he doesn’t remember the names of. They have been going for eighteen hours – they’re high but not as high as they’ll be by the 36th hour or the 72nd. The twenty minute taxi ride to this flat was enough to start the sound in Anthony’s head, a sound that begins with ticking and then overwhelms. This is what he takes the drugs for to stop hearing. Also to feel his body moving from bone to cartilage. But tonight’s trip holds a surprise. The ghost of George, a young man and former flame of Anthony’s walks across his vision. His body was found the day before on the Tumulus, Hampstead Heath. The police said it was an overdose, that it isn’t even worth investigating. George, in ghost form, tells Anthony he has been murdered. George makes a deal with Anthony. Find my necklace and with it the killer, and I’ll stop the sound in your head. So our thriller begins.

The narrative, written by Christopher Adams, is funny at times, darkly awful at others. The thriller genre is a really original way to investigate the dark underside of the gay chemsex culture, and the dismissive police response to the death of young gay men in a society riddled with homophobia.

Ciaran Owens delivers a strong and convincing Anthony, playful and desperate and driven by something beyond his control. He is joined by Ian Hallard and Harry Lister Smith who create the many characters Anthony meets along his journey. Lister Smith embodies the young boys who go from lovers to victims, and Hallard competently alternates between cheery dog walkers, sinister villains and therapists, all ably directed by Matt Steinberg.

Both Hallard and Lister Smith, in their various guises, wear microphones that echo and distort their voices and lend them a disconcerting plurality. They create a soundscape of audio through objects held against microphones, reminiscent of a radio play made visible (sound design by Nick Manning). Set design (Alison Neighbour) is simple and effective, and Anthony paints the picture for us, making the table and cabinets chameleons in the space.

It isn’t a perfect production – there are moments that feel clumsy and unpolished – but it grips its audience immediately and has us on the edge of our seats, rooting for Anthony’s mission and, in turn, for George and the queer men, murdered but dismissed by the police, that he represents.

Reviewed by Amelia Brown

Photography by Darren Bell

 


Tumulus

Soho Theatre until 4th May

 

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:
Pickle Jar | ★★★★★ | October 2018
Cuckoo | ★★★ | November 2018
Chasing Bono | ★★★★ | December 2018
Laura | ★★★½ | December 2018
No Show | ★★★★ | January 2019
Garrett Millerick: Sunflower | ★★★★ | February 2019
Soft Animals | ★★★★ | February 2019
Angry Alan | ★★★★ | March 2019
Mouthpiece | ★★★ | April 2019
William Andrews: Willy | ★★★★★ | April 2019

 

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Two for the Seesaw – 2 Stars

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seesaw

Two for the Seesaw

Trafalgar Studios

Reviewed – 17th July 2018

★★

“a drama that feels outdated, lacking the high stakes needed to make this two-hander as compelling as it could be”


 

An “intimate character driven comedy-drama” (as described by director Gary Condes), Two For The Seesaw premiered in 1958 and has enjoyed a successful history since then, including a Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine starring film adaptation. Now in the intimate Studio 2 space at Trafalgar Studios, this new staging is painfully faithful to William Gibson’s original script, producing a drama that feels outdated, lacking the high stakes needed to make this two-hander as compelling as it could be.

Jerry (Charles Dorfman), a lawyer from Nebraska, has recently separated from a wife he is financially and emotionally reliant upon and moved to New York. There, he meets aspiring dancer and Bronx girl Gittel (Elsie Bennet). Representing two clashing personalities, the pair seesaw between loving embraces and tempestuous arguments, each keeping secrets from the other until a climactic duel that decides the duo’s fate. The success of this show hinges on powerful and, to use a slightly vague term, truthful performances, which Dorfman and Bennet, though both highly committed to character and given circumstances, fail to provide. We never quite connect with these characters’ drives, or feel what’s at stake, and delivery at times feel one-note, lacklustre and constrained.

The actors aren’t helped by Condes’ direction, who seems intent on making his actors sit and talk over the phone, or sit and talk in person, scene after scene… after scene. Max Dorey’s lovingly naturalistic set design too seems orchestrated to provide areas for actors to rest their tired feet. This prop-heavy design leads to soul-crushingly long blackouts that actually counteract the naturalism and make it harder to reconnect with the setting and situations. Though attractively working to support the story, the set seems to simplify the characters’ differences (Jerry’s apartment is blue! Gittel apartment is pink!) rather than interrogate the play’s themes further.

Revivals work best when we can question older plays from a contemporary point of view, and Condes lets Two For The Seesaw off the hook too easily. For some, some good old fashioned, barbarous exchanges between the sexes and a heartfelt exploration of marriage and power are enough for an entertaining evening of West End theatre. But ‘The Apartment’ this is not.

 

Reviewed by Joseph Prestwich

Photography by James Davidson

 


Two for the Seesaw

Trafalgar Studios until 4th August

 

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