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Author
Joe Penhall
Director
Terry Johnson
Design
Es Devlin
Lighting
Bruno Poet
Sound
Ian Dickson
Performers
Barry
Douglas Hodge
Liz
Anna
Maxwell Martin
Greg
Rupert Graves
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Royal Court
Jerwood Theatre
2nd
September - 9th October 2004 |
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This
is theatre as it should be:
holding a mirror to the world,
addressing serious problems
in contemporary society -
in this case, the integrity
of the press and the dangers
of celebrity - and doing it
with real wit, blunt honesty,
and an acute sharpness of
focus.
This is a very funny play,
and also a wincingly painful
one. Joe Penhall has an exquisite
ear for the many shades and
flavours of meaning in the
half-spoken word, and a penetrating
eye for the absurdity, cruelty,
contradictions and menace
of things - here, tabloid
journalism in a world where
only one thing is allowed
to justify what journalists
do: profit.
Each member of the three-handed
cast is excellent, but the
show-stealer is Douglas Hodge
as Barry. How could it be
otherwise? Hodge is a fine
actor, and Barry is a peach
of a part; it makes Hodge
explore almost the full range
of human emotional possibility,
inviting him to be sober,
drunk, funny, sad, perplexed,
proud, enraged, hunted, bitter,
broken, alone - and to tap
dance, weep, tell jokes, and
reveal a kind and depth of
vulnerability that the audience
has to feel is utterly real
and excoriatingly uncomfortable.
Anna Maxwell Martin as both
'Jane' and Liz is supremely
convincing, transforming herself
from the admiring coquette
to the ruthless, almost sociopathic
journalist with admirable
ease. And Rupert Graves as
Greg is equally convincing
both as the oleaginous banker
and ghastly investigative
tabloid journalist. The three
of them take the audience
on a journey from hilarity
to revulsion and half way
back that is little short
of dizzying.
Award-winning Joe Penhall
established his voice in contemporary
drama with earlier work for
the Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse
and National Theatre. On the
strength of this tour de force
one has to say he is in the
pantheon; one eagerly awaits
his next work.
AC Grayling |
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