A
Big Funk
Playwright
- John Patrick Shanley
Director - Andy Arnold
Company - Arches Theatre Company
Venue - The
Arches, Glasgow www.thearches.co.uk
0901 022 0300
New entrance
at 253 Argyll St opposite the Argyll St exit from Central Station.
Dates - 6 - 23 March 2001
Run time 1hr 20mins
Reviewer Thelma Good
Great cast,
great script, great set + desigh and great direction! We are taken to
New York where Jill, Fifi, Omar, Austin and Gergory are living their
lives bathed in the psycho-babble we
westerners hear around us. It's witty with a family sized jar of Vaseline
petroleum jelly and a bath scene which makes the women in the audience
sigh in envy.
Jill, given a fey power by Selina Boyack, is a woman with self -destruct written all over her as she draws people to her. First it's Gergory, Paul Riley who has a need he thinks she will answer then Austin, charmingly played by John Kazek, who just wants to make the world a better place. Austin takes Jill round to see Omar, Lewis Howden, the professional knife thrower who's just been told by Fifi, Isabel Joss, his wife they're expecting twins tomorrow! They are a great couple. What follows is a dinner party and first date which is sticky and dips towards disaster at times, as they do.
John Patrick Shanley wrote the screen play for Moonstruck and this play too is sharply observed and exciting in its comedy whilst making some big points about the way we all cope with The Big Funk. The play recognises where its audience is at, young or old. It dramatises wonderfully those moments of understanding and empathy, as well as those of not tuning in, between the sexes. Shanley is a writer who cares about his audience, and that's one of the considerable strengths of the play.
The ending packs
a powerful punch given by a man in the altogether, natural, human, non
threatening. The Big Funk is almost spiritual in its awareness of the
hopes and fears we give ourselves, their nature sometimes stained by
imprinting in our youth. Excellent play and performances where real
but yet surreal people inhabit the stage so American they even laughed
in American. Well worth a trip to Glasgow to feel you've been to New
York and meet such human people. Finishing well in time to catch the
9:30pm train back to Edinburgh.
© Thelma
Good 6 March 2001