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Love-Lies-Bleeding – 4 Stars

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Love-Lies-Bleeding

Love-Lies-Bleeding

Print Room at the Coronet

Reviewed – 14th November 2018

★★★★

“The cast’s depictions are all pin sharp, yet McGann stands out”

 

Alex is an artist enduring the final stages of his life following a brutal, second stroke. Living, barely, in the arid, American South West, he is the subject of practical and philosophical contemplations between his son Sean (Jack Wilkinson), second wife Toinette (Josie Lawrence) and fourth, younger wife Lia (Clara Indrani) as to when and how he should be guided into the beyond. We see Alex (Joe McGann) at different stages: in his cavorting and carefree prime, between strokes in a wheelchair, and finally in a vegetative state to be sedated at the whim of his significant others. His fate is now dependent on the trio’s conflicting views of him as a father or husband, as much as on their ponderings on morality and mortality.

As a novelist for whom writing is ‘a concentrated form of thinking’, Don DeLillo seems impossible to transfer stylistically to the stage. His slow and sublime evocation of mood and abstract themes don’t promise much for a theatre-goer to engage with. Director Jack McNamara admits his reservations were eventually overcome only by having the resources to create theatricality by other means. That he pulls it off is a noteworthy feat. Lily Arnold’s set design shows us the comfortable sofa and wooden floor of Alex’s home, essential for long, angsty interactions, but surrounding it is the sand and scrub that symbolises the immense unknown, creating a sense that Alex and everyone else sit at the edge of eternity. Over this scene looms a huge transparent screen, host to some stunning video and lighting effects (Azusa Ono and Andrzej Goulding) which somehow create the distance and nostalgia of memories by technical means, assisted by cinematic sound design from Alexandra Faye Braithwaite.

Given the sedentary nature of the main character, action is difficult to contrive. The brilliance of the script prompts regular chuckles of appreciation from the audience, but emotional connection is harder to come by. The cast’s depictions are all pin sharp, yet McGann stands out, despite or because of having the hardest task, by breathing authenticity into a mostly cerebral role; an artist creating art out of his bleak context. This may or may not be a parallel with De Lillo himself, but given the control and precision in every aspect of the play, including this production, it seems unlikely to be a coincidence.

A memorable production, this Love-Lies-Bleeding matches poetic imagery with precise staging. However, if you’re left pleasantly haunted by the show, it’s accompanied by a strange desire to find a copy of the text to experience it properly, as a reader.

 

Reviewed by Dominic Gettins

Photography by  Tristram Kenton

 


Love-Lies-Bleeding

Print Room at the Coronet until 8th December

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
The Open House | ★★★★ | January 2018
The Comet | ★★★★ | March 2018
How It Is (Part One) | ★★½ | May 2018
Act & Terminal 3 | ★★★★ | June 2018
The Outsider | ★★★★★ | September 2018

 

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Courage

Mother Courage and her Children

Southwark Playhouse

Reviewed – 6th November 2017

★★★

“Lawrence articulates to the audience a character with steely determination and an innate inner strength”

 

Hailed by some as the best play of the last hundred years, I was excited to see this performance. The story follows a mother who is determined to make a living and protect her children through the barbaric Thirty Years’ War by any means available to her.

The scene is immediately set as you are led into the auditorium by ushers dressed as soldiers. The stage is a central walkway with seating on either side. As you enter, a boy is playing centre stage with toy soldiers alongside Barney George’s set of scaffolding, dirty tarpaulin, rope and smoke, illustrating the desolate landscape of war.

Part of the staging (and large portions of the play) are performed on a mezzanine level behind one half of the audience. If you are sat on this side it is almost impossible to watch without straining your neck or annoying the person next to you! This I felt was a strange decision from director Hannah Chissick and actually unnecessary as the main performance on the central stage and aisles worked well.

Josie Lawrence puts on a strong performance as Mother Courage. She articulates to the audience a character with steely determination and an innate inner strength that enables her to survive and adapt to whatever the war torn environment throws at her. She displays a huge range of emotions from deepest sadness to frustrated anger and uses quick witted humour to build relationships and diffuse dangerous situations. It is a remarkable feat given that she is centre stage for much of the 3 hours of the production.

Phoebe Vigor who plays Kattrin shows off her acting abilities by giving a stand out performance as the mute daughter. Using only facial expressions you feel her emotion and heartache without her actually uttering a word. You sense the depth of her helplessness and frustration whenever she sets foot on stage.

Laura Checkley playing Yvette brings life to the stage as the loud quick-witted prostitute. She commands the stage with a swagger and a sharp tongue that leaves the men she encounters a quivering wreck.

I enjoyed the performance but felt that something was lacking … perhaps not being able to see some of the acting didn’t help? It was also very long. Too long. To keep the audience engaged for the full 3 hours it needs to have much greater pace and stronger performances from the supporting actors.

 

Reviewed by Angela East

Photography by Scott Rylander

 

 

 

 

MOTHER COURAGE & HER CHILDREN

is at Southwark Playhouse until 9th December

 

 

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