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Judith
Playwright - Howard Barker
Director - David O'Neill
Set Designer - Suzanne Field
Lighting Designer - Elaine Robertson
Costume Designer - Stuart Jenkins
Music Composers - Pete Drummie & Scott McGowan
Company - Theatre In Action
Venue - Citizen theatre 0141 429 0022
Dates - 9 - 20 April at 7:30pm not Sun or Mon
Run Time - 1 hour no interval
Reviewer - Thelma Good
Sharpened text fascinates
Barker's version of the Bibilical story of the Israeli widow, Judith and
her night in the tent of Assyrian General Holofernes is eerily prescient
of the present events in that much torn region. Judith and the general
are not alone in Barker's play, The Servant described in the character
list as an Ideologist also enters, full of sharp comments. Urging Judith
to get on with it, berating her for her moral anguish, Mary Wells
as The Servant is chillingly funny as she takes charge of all their lives.
The General, Aleksandar Mikic, is young and cruel, talking of death's
randomness and the fascination of war at the start Mikic gives
us a real sense of the miltary mind, honed to command. He lies waiting
for the coming battle in his tent, his flat chest concealed under his
black six-pack leather chest armour. Hazel Ann Crawford performance
as the widow Judith develops as she goes from widow to seducer and lover,
ending broken in her soul but strong in her realisation that she will
be seen as a heroine. A striking image of a country fatally warped by
it's own revenge.
The Circle studio reveals a subtler pace is needed than David O'Neil too
hurried direction of the three's first encounters. Wells's Servant begins
to hold the peice together and then Judith and the General's exchanges
hit better rhythms. Throughout Barker's sharpened text fascinates with
its resonances for political and military events happening today.
© Thelma Good 9 April 2002
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