by Barney Norris
seen at the Bridge Theatre on 10th May 2018
Laurie Sansom directs Ophelia Lovibond a Lou, Sion Daniel Young as Ryan, Ukweli Roach as Pete and Claire Skinner as Jenny in this new play about a Hampshire farming family (Jenny and her children Lou and Ryan) still numbed by the loss of the husband and father; Pete is a friend of Ryan's from their early schooldays, subsequently romantically involved with Lou.
The scene (designed by Rae Smith) is the yard space outside the farmhouse - neither the ground nor the house is particularly attractive, subverting the cosy urban view of idyllic pastoral life. In fact, a gigantic oil pipe snakes across the stage, providing both an image of rural despoliation and the trigger for the expression of dangerous tensions between all he characters - the play opens with Pete and Ryan installing a hosepipe to divert some of the oil into the farm's fuel tank without Jenny's approval.
The three family members are each caught up in a confusing mixture of grief at their loss and resentment of each other, while Pete hovers between being drawn into the family dynamics and being shunned as an outsider. It transpires hat he has been in prison, that Lou used to visit him but then stopped, that Jenny certainly does not want her daughter to become involved with him again, that Ryan probably feels more for him than just friendship. The details of the imprisonment, though only gradually revealed, turn out to be of critical importance as well.
The performances were good, navigating a welter of emotions and a pervading sense of crisis brought about partly by the revelation of past deceptions and partly by the inflexible threat of economic disaster which no-one seemed capable of facing honestly for more than a few moments (if at all). Claire Skinner as Jenny, the mother desperate to hold on to the legacy of the farm and to control her children's destinies, was at times an appalling vision of monstrous manipulation, but also managed to convey the desolation of loss made more painful by very mixed feelings (which she could barely articulate) about the pattern of her married life.
However, the play did not entirely gel. The legacy of loss mixed with resentment was imperfectly managed, in that the issue of resentment only surfaced when it was dramatically convenient, rather than simmering constantly in the background preparing for the revelation. Likewise, the deceptions played on Pete did not retrospectively account for any uneasiness between him and Ryan, because an insufficient sense of that uneasiness was planted beforehand. Some of the logistic management of the scenes was too obvious, such as Ryan's laboured attempts to get his mother indoors so that Lou and Pete could have a private talk: this was very clunky writing. I also wondered at Pete's forbearance and general capacity to be quietly polite; is that how someone behaves after a year in prison, especially late in the play after he has discovered that he has to some extent been framed?
It is perhaps unfair to carp at minor details, but these too occasionally caused misgivings. Though one should not make presuppositions about the likely vocabulary of characters, Pete's use of the word 'magisterial' seemed rather misjudged. More seriously, I was puzzled about Ryan's interest in astronomy. In itself this is entirely plausible for a young farmer responding to the natural world when his commitment to farming in itself is lacklustre. However it is rather too easy to allow him only to recognise Orion (famously almost the only constellation most people can identify) and to be immediately vague about anything else when questioned. Then in the final moments of the play he comes out with a sentimental avocation that he looks to the Pole Star as inspiration from his father, claiming it is the first star to be seen in the night sky. But this is absolutely not true - Polaris is not sufficiently bright to be the first visible star even on the nights when Venus (the Evening Star) is not visible. An autodidact of astronomy would be the last person to make such a claim. Indeed it would be more likely for him to say 'many people think that .... but actually ... '. Unfortunately the play needed to finish with Ryan comforting his mother, and this was allowed to trump plausible character-drawing.
In short, though individual moments and conversations in the play were often compelling, and the intimations of repressed feelings and buried secrets were powerfully hinted at, the overall structure of the play was at times rather clumsy.
However, the play did not entirely gel. The legacy of loss mixed with resentment was imperfectly managed, in that the issue of resentment only surfaced when it was dramatically convenient, rather than simmering constantly in the background preparing for the revelation. Likewise, the deceptions played on Pete did not retrospectively account for any uneasiness between him and Ryan, because an insufficient sense of that uneasiness was planted beforehand. Some of the logistic management of the scenes was too obvious, such as Ryan's laboured attempts to get his mother indoors so that Lou and Pete could have a private talk: this was very clunky writing. I also wondered at Pete's forbearance and general capacity to be quietly polite; is that how someone behaves after a year in prison, especially late in the play after he has discovered that he has to some extent been framed?
It is perhaps unfair to carp at minor details, but these too occasionally caused misgivings. Though one should not make presuppositions about the likely vocabulary of characters, Pete's use of the word 'magisterial' seemed rather misjudged. More seriously, I was puzzled about Ryan's interest in astronomy. In itself this is entirely plausible for a young farmer responding to the natural world when his commitment to farming in itself is lacklustre. However it is rather too easy to allow him only to recognise Orion (famously almost the only constellation most people can identify) and to be immediately vague about anything else when questioned. Then in the final moments of the play he comes out with a sentimental avocation that he looks to the Pole Star as inspiration from his father, claiming it is the first star to be seen in the night sky. But this is absolutely not true - Polaris is not sufficiently bright to be the first visible star even on the nights when Venus (the Evening Star) is not visible. An autodidact of astronomy would be the last person to make such a claim. Indeed it would be more likely for him to say 'many people think that .... but actually ... '. Unfortunately the play needed to finish with Ryan comforting his mother, and this was allowed to trump plausible character-drawing.
In short, though individual moments and conversations in the play were often compelling, and the intimations of repressed feelings and buried secrets were powerfully hinted at, the overall structure of the play was at times rather clumsy.
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