Christopher Preece Archives - thespyinthestalls.com

★★★★

“The subject matter never quite chills our bones, but the context is often unsettling”

The atmosphere hits you like a bracing offshore wind as you descend into the depths of the small basement on Jermyn Street. Anna Lewis’ set: a semi-submerged, semi-derelict stone chapel, creates the mood. Tragic and sepulchral, yet some sort of haven from the cruel elements that sweep the remote Hebridean shoreline outside. Its owner, Kirk, is just as rough-edged. Living alone with Ellen, his niece, they live in quiet captivity until two young, hapless ornithologists burst through the door – literally knocking it off its hinges. The impulsive, emotionally detached Robert, along with the more moral but anxious John have arrived to study the local bird life. It is the eve of World War II, so there is understandably a more sinister motive behind the survey that leaves them stranded on the isle for a month. Less understandable is the fact that the two young men seem somewhat unaware of the pretext. Whereas the isolated, cantankerous Kirk has all the gen. Fully aware that his outlying outcrop is scheduled to be the subject of a biological weapon experiment, he sees the dollar-signs stockpiling in his compensation package.

David Greig’s lyrical play draws you in to this small world. It is claustrophobic but the confines are torn, allowing us to see the wider issues. Little, though, is made of the encroaching anthrax experiment and instead we are watching the social and romantic entanglements as avidly as birdwatchers study our feathered friends’ behaviour. Humans are much more complicated. Greig knows this only too well and the poetry of his language teases out the characters’ serpentine layers with rich dialogue and haunting monologues. The standout performance is Whitney Kehinde’s Ellen. Timid and repressed she swiftly replaces her dour mantle with swathes of lust, as a new-found freedom from her uncle’s tyranny is tragically chanced upon. Kevin McMonagle is wonderfully charismatic as Kirk. Acerbic and unashamedly direct, he tries to keep Ellen like a caged bird but cannot control her mind. The stage lights up every time McMonagle fires his lines with a wry sense of humour and a Chekhovian dramatic irony.

Bruce Langley and Fred Woodley Evans, as Robert and John respectively, also manage to spin out the humour that runs alongside the poignancy. Deliberate echoes of Laurel and Hardy break the solemnity in a play that is difficult to categorise. The comedy is subtle, like the Mona Lisa smile. It disappears when you look directly at it. The ambiguity is sometimes overdone, though, and confusion starts to set in as the show coasts towards its climax in a tangle of charged eroticism. Despite the shifts in mood, Jessica Lazar’s assured direction evenly paces the action. Clever use of the intimate space sets clear indicators for the interior and exterior scenes, enhanced by David Doyle’s suggestive lighting which evokes the bleakness, and ignites warmth when needed. The subject matter never quite chills our bones, but the context is often unsettling.

Politically and philosophically the play throws up some interesting questions while rooting itself in a story about human relationships. Desire is a complex beast. The male characters are more at sea than Ellen. We wonder whether she is playing the two outsiders or whether her passions are genuine. We are certainly given time to contemplate – the play does stretch itself out. Not every character makes it to the end. But, thanks to the writing and the wonderful performances from the strong quartet of actors, the audience is kept in thrall right up to the closing moments.

Outlying Islands

King’s Head Theatre

Reviewed – 15th January 2019

★★★★

“Jessica Lazar’s accomplished direction brings out the very best in her four-strong cast, and it is clear how grounded they each feel in the play’s reality”

David Greig’s Outlying Islands was first produced in 2002, and has not been seen in London since then. It is an exceptional piece of dramatic writing, and Atticist’s intense and intelligent revival serves it well.

It is 1939; John and Robert are two keen young ornithologists, fresh out of Cambridge, who have been sent by ‘the Ministry’ to study and document the extraordinary and hitherto unexamined bird population on a remote island in the Outer Hebrides. They will spend four weeks on the island – 40 miles from the nearest inhabited land – with no radio and no boat. Their only company will be the island’s leaseholder and his niece. The stage is thus set for a compelling play examining our relationship with wildness – in nature, in ourselves, and in one another. What happens to us when we are divorced from conventional societal mores? What is the role of science in our understanding of the natural world? The play is set at the outset of a long and bloody world war, in which millions of people are set to die; many of them young men, with an unwavering sense of faith and moral duty. What do those things actually mean? And what is it, really, to be free? These are big questions, and it takes a playwright at the height of their powers to wrestle with them without sacrificing humour, warmth and the wonderful messiness of being human. David Greig is that writer here, and is supported by deft direction and design and a very able cast.

The production design perfectly reflects the island’s peculiar and seductive mix of austerity and profound, instinctive, animal, pleasure. There is nothing showy here, and yet we are continually aware – not least owing to Christopher Preece’s excellent sound design – of the wind, the waves, the birds, and the earthy warmth and comfort of the disused chapel. The huge wooden door, which separates the two worlds, dominates the set, and although the boys’ early slapstick interaction with it didn’t quite convince, it nonetheless remains a powerful physical metaphor throughout the piece, and the dangerous energy of the liminal space is palpable when the door is held open for a time in the gathering storm of the play’s second half.

Jessica Lazar’s accomplished direction brings out the very best in her four-strong cast, and it is clear how grounded they each feel in the play’s reality. Jack McMillan is heartbreakingly believable as John – full of sweetness and enthusiasm, but ultimately unable to break through the many societal constrictions placed on him. By way of contrast, Tom Machell’s Robert is incisive, impulsive, mercurial; at home in this wild place from the moment he steps off the boat. Ken Drury is a splendid hoary presence as Kirk, and demonstrates considerable skill in his later transformation into the upright English Captain come to take the boys home, and the island’s lease-holders back to the mainland. And surrounded by all these men – a new circumstance for this solitary, cinema-loving creature – Ellen ultimately makes the island her own. Rose Wardlaw gives an extraordinary performance, and is utterly mesmerising throughout. As we watch her fill her lungs with air, stretch out her cramped wings and embrace the wildness within her, we too are transported to a place of dangerous possibility.

Outlying Islands is Atticist’s second production at the King’s Head, after its barnstorming revival of Steven Berkoff’s East, and its first as an Associate Company. It marks a fantastic beginning to an exciting artistic partnership; long may it continue.

OUTLYING ISLANDS

Jermyn Street Theatre

★★★★

“The subject matter never quite chills our bones, but the context is often unsettling”

OUTLYING ISLANDS

Jermyn Street Theatre

Reviewed on 11th February 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Alex Brenner

Previously reviewed at this venue:

OUTLYING ISLANDS

OUTLYING ISLANDS

OUTLYING ISLANDS

King’s Head Theatre

Reviewed – 15th January 2019

★★★★

“Jessica Lazar’s accomplished direction brings out the very best in her four-strong cast, and it is clear how grounded they each feel in the play’s reality”

David Greig’s Outlying Islands was first produced in 2002, and has not been seen in London since then. It is an exceptional piece of dramatic writing, and Atticist’s intense and intelligent revival serves it well.

Outlying Islands is Atticist’s second production at the King’s Head, after its barnstorming revival of Steven Berkoff’s East, and its first as an Associate Company. It marks a fantastic beginning to an exciting artistic partnership; long may it continue.

Reviewed by Rebecca Crankshaw

Photography by Clive Barda

Outlying Islands

King’s Head Theatre until 2nd February

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue: