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Dawn
Director - Mark Westbrook
Designer - Carrie Southall
Lighting Designer - Sergey Jakovsky
Composer & Musical Director - Oliver Searle
Musicians -- Symposia Ensemble
Company - Nomad
Venue - Arches Argyll Street Glasgow
Dates - 11 - 13 April 2002 at 8pm
Reviewer - Thelma Good
Stunning production
Transfixing, this drama takes us to the fields of Flanders, in the caverned
space of Arches 5 while the names of The Queens Own Cameron Highlanders
are read out throughout. Some are clearly heard, the many John Browns,
a Donald Dewar leaps out but many fall unheard, the three actors in front
of us so hold our attention.
Simon Conlon's Davey volunteered at 15 to find if he could be a soldier
like his dead Father, Graeme Kerr's Strachan is the older foot soldier
picked out for a firing squad for a man he could have been. Simeon Wren
is the wounded Sergeant who hauls them both into a shellhole in No Man's
Land - he found his own hellhole earlier with a German soldier who spoke
prefect English. All three give performances which move us to laughter,
to still awed listening and to tears as they sing in a low whisper to
keep their spirits up. Mixed into these three men's stories are the words
of Noel Coward, Otto Dix, Julian Grenfell, HM Government and a recent
Army advert you may have read.
It's a stunning production from a new company whose talents should not
be overlooked.
Oliver Searle's intricate music, never just an accompliment, adds to this
almost immaculate multilayered production, while Sergey Jakovsky's lighting
lights the space so that the dark hours, the smoking of guns and the coming
dawn become our reality. Nomad is a company new to me but I will be looking
out for it and all involved with this powerful production.
© Thelma Good 12 April 2002
Review of another Nomad production Misterman
2004 (part of Arches Festival 2004).
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