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Written
by
Roland
Schimmelpfennig
Translated
by
David Tushingham
Directed
by
Richard Wilson
Design
Mark Thompson
Lighting
Johanna Town
Sound
Ian Dickinson
Cast
Helen Baxendale
Nigel Lindsay
Saskia Reeves
Tom Riley
Georgia Taylor
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Royal
Court Theatre
12
May - June 18 2005 |
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As the
blurb says, a woman turns
up on the doorstep of a married
man's family home, claiming
that he and she were once
lovers and that she is there
to hold him to the promise
he once made to love her forever.
'What a weirdo' we all think,
as do the husband and his
wife, and the door is closed
in her face. In the end, however,
the husband takes off with
this woman of mystery, abandoning
his wife and son.
Roland Schimmelpfennig's 'The
Woman Before', directed by
Richard Wilson, is concerned
with what happens in between,
how she makes him fall (back?)
in love with her, and convinces
him to give up everything
that had previously been meaningful
to him.
Unfortunately, having watched
the play, I'm none the wiser
about what happened in between.
I know that Andi (Tom Riley),
the son, injures mystery woman
Romi Votlander (Helen Baxendale)
by throwing stones at her
in the street, bringing her
into the house for the night
to recover and allowing her
to seduce and then suffocate
him. And I know that the weapon
of suffocation (a plastic
bag) is the very same thing
that sets Claudia (Saskia
Reeves), the wife on fire,
and... that's as far as I,
and the play, got.
The play is anti-chronological.
Events take place and then
large green writing tells
us that we are jumping to
a couple of minutes earlier
to explain why - or to 'two
hours before' or 'a while
later'. I have learnt from
this that I am a fan of chronology
‚ unless there's a very important
reason for things to be revealed
in a different order (take
Christopher Noland's film
'Memento'). In this case the
device seems like a mere ploy
to make the play different,
the only result being some
rather tedious repetitions
of dialogue.
The one occasion that the
flashback method does build
suspense - the crux of the
play where first Frank refuses
to go with Romi and then he
agrees to abandon his family
- we flash back to the important
moment in between, the moment
where something switches in
Frank's mind, but nothing
actually happens! Perhaps
then Romi, woman of mystery,
has a mystical force that
she uses to turn this family
man.
Perhaps she just has to look
at her victims and they succumb
to her desires. But we the
audience are oblivious to
this. Perhaps it is her mystical
powers that enable a plastic
bag to set a human alight,
there's no other explanation.
This makes for a play that
is strange and alienating,
though watchable to a point
of morbid curiosity. Performances
all round are decent, but
'The Woman Before' is an experience
more baffling than thought-provoking.
Peggy Nuttall |
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