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Written by
Michael Hastings
Producers
Sonia Friedman
Norman Tulchin
Ted Tulchin
Director
Edward Hall
Design
Francis O'Connor
Lighting
Ben Ormerod
Music
Mick Sands
Performers
Daniel Weyman
Robert Portal
Jamie Beamish
Issy Van Randwyck
Imelda Staunton
Dermot Crowley
Romola Garai
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The
Duke of Yorks Theatre
19 February
- 29 May 2004 |
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Samuel Beckett
was a reclusive individual who shied
away from public acclaim and is reputed
to have fled to Tunisia out of sheer
embarrassment after being awarded the
Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969.
Because his work gives us at best an
ambiguous insight into of his mind,
one might expect a venture into Becketts
earlier years to be interesting and
revealing.
The premise
of the play is the relationship between
James Joyce and the young Beckett. We
know that James Joyce had interesting
stories to tell, given that his work
is so clearly plucked from his surroundings.
The relationship of one established
literary genius with one soon-to-be
is presented here in the context of
a much larger web of human relations,
and Hastings guides our attention to
what is at first an unobvious point
of interest Joyces daughter Lucia.
With
very little documentation about Lucia
Joyce, Hastings lets his imagination
be inspired by the rumours that acumulated
around the family, and by inferences
drawn from Joyces work. The result once
ones expectations are adjusted is an
engrossing portrayal of complex family
relations and the burden they imposed
on the troubled mind of Lucia, a symbolic
amalgamation of these complexities.
Lucia
fights against fits of psychosis and
delves into a fantasy world to escape.
Her father (played by Dermot Crowley)
denies the reality of his precious daughters
disorder, her mother (Imelda Staunton)
preoccupies herself with the upkeep
of the family name, and her brother
(Jamie Beamish) is too concerned with
his own efforts to become a successful
opera singer. And so Lucia turns to
Samuel Beckett (Daniel Weyman) who unwittingly
becomes involved after being hired as
an assistant to James Joyce, and finds
himself entertaining a series of Lucias
fantasies of their marriage until her
eventual mental break-down. Perhaps
as an echo of reality Beckett remains
a virtual stranger to the audience throughout.
The play,
directed by Edward Hall, has an almost
comical character it is difficult not
to giggle at Lucias Tourettes-like outburst
of expletives or mother Noras hysterical
overbearingness, James middle-aged silliness,
and Becketts bafflement. The cast carry
off the dark humour with great credit,
and applause is due in particular to
the debut stage performance of Romola
Garai as a mesmerising Lucia, whose
illumination of Lucias character fully
engages the audiences empathy.
Should
there be a take-home message to justify
the decisions made in the construction
of this imaginary scenario? If one does
not expect one, Calico
is an electric and wholly gratifying
piece of theatre.
Peggy Nuttall |
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