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Closer -
Scottish Premiere and tour
Playwright - Patrick Marber
Director - Peter Mackle Burns
Designer - Andrew Burt
Lighting Designer - Abigail McMillan
Company - TheatreFusion
Venues & Dates - See end of review
Seen at Bedlam September 13, 2002
Reviewer - David Stanners
Acting is raw, convincing
Love in modern relationships seems to come and go on a whim. TheatreFusion's
production of Patrick Marber's Closer, interprets ' love's capricious
nature from all angles with a fine brush, leaving no white canvas shining
through.
The entire play is rooted in the actions and consequences of two couples,
drenched in sexual and emotional rivalry. Dan (Marc Oliver) is an obituary
journalist who meets and falls for Alice, Susan Worsfold, a traveler,
stripper and subject for his latest novel. Meanwhile Anna, Fiona Ormiston,
a photographer is having an affair with Dan behind Alice's back. The fourth
party is Larry, Mark Coleman, a dermatologist, built into the love
equation by a classic case of serendipity.
If this all sounds confusing, it gets even more so. One night Dan is fooling
around in an Internet chat room masquerading as a sluttish version of
Anna. On the other side is Larry, oblivious to Dan's proverbial cockteasing.
When they arrange online to meet at the zoo the result is a hilariously
embarrassing encounter between a perplexed Anna and a red-faced Larry.
Ironically they end up married, a factor that pushes the plot through
more twists and turns than San Francisco's Lombard Street. In brief, without
uncovering the play's many nooks and crannies, Anna leaves Larry for Dan,
and Dan leaves Alice for Anna, and back again.
The exact nature of the plot is incidental to the underlying themes Patrick
Marber drives at. Modern relationships are tough; human beings are complex;
love is even more complex, and at the core of this is the human primordial
instinct for proclivities of sex, excitement and lust. These themes are
explored intelligently with the use of incredibly raw and explicit language.
The biggest question posed is, what is love, and how can it be defined?
What drives humans to stay together, or leave in search of others? The
typical human reaction is borne out by the characters with an unflinching
chutzpah as they jealously devour each other with crass sexual questions
about their respective infidelities.
In the end interpretations are offered, but no definitive answers provided.
From each corner, the acting is raw, convincing and devoid of sentimentality.
Marber's work relentlessly pokes, prods and tantalizes the audience over
decisive definitions of love, knowing fine well that in the end, there
are none.
© David Stanners 13 September 2002 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Tour details for TheatreFusion's Closer
Tour begins
12 -14 Sept at 7.30pm
Edinburgh Bedlam Theatre, 0131 225 9893
17 Sept at 7.30pm Paisley Arts Centre 0141 887 1010
18 Sept at 7.45pm Cumbernauld Theatre 01236 732887
19 Sept at 7.30pm Dunfermline Carnegie Hall 01383 314000
20 Sept at 7.30pm Motherwell Civic Theatre 01698 267515
21 Sept at 7.30pm Livingston Howden Park Centre 01506 433634
1 Oct at 8pm St Andrews The Byre Theatre 01334 475000
3 Oct at 7.30pm Falkirk Town Hall 01324 506850
4 Oct at 7.30pm Greenock Arts Guild 01475 723038
6 Oct at 8.00pm East Kilbride Arts Centre 01355 26100
9 -12 Oct at 7:30pm Glasgow The Arches 0901 022 0300
End of tour
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