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Review from 2003 Edinburgh
Fringe
The Straits by Gregory Burke.
Director - John Tiffany.
Designer - Neil Warmington.
Lighting Designer - Natasha Chivers.
Composer and Sound Designer - Cormac O'Connor.
Company – Paines Plough.
Company Website www.painesplough.com
Seen to review on 7 August 2003 at Traverse Theatre Edinburgh.
Now touring with Revived production with largely new cast. Touring
Dates
Reviewer Thelma Good.
This second play by playwright Gergory Brurke has everything on board
with director John Tiffany skillfulling piloting it to its first night
- it sets sail and and course far away from many second plays' dire straits
mistakes. Sure it's predominately about maleness and politics, as his
first play Gagarin Way was, but these are young boys and there's a young
girl too. The Straits of the title are the ones around Gibraltar, that
rock at the end of Spain that's still a British colony. It's where Admiral
Nelson's body was pickled after Traflgar, in the play his ghost's been
seen by an British serviceman living on this tiny outpost of a lost Empire.
It's not the only ghost. these young boys Doink, James Marchant,
Jock, Stephen Wright and newcomer Darren, Calum Callaghan clearly
are wrestling with, there's also the phantoms of male soldiery, their
fathers, and brother in the case of Jock and the fading echoes of the
British Empire.
Hanging out at the swiming spot favoured by young British boys they go
harpooning for occy (octopus), making sure the younger Darren understands
the ways of the Rock and the edgy, sometimes violent relationship they
have with the locals. Darren has a sister Tracey, Jenny Platt.
Slightly older than the rest of them, she's 17 and bright but still uses
her phsyical assets to relate to these boy men. Tracey tries to ensure
Darren isn't going to get into the bind he was in on their last posting
as a service family. Their fathers are barely eluded to, their mothers
are more of an off stage presence, reflecting how the women in such families
often do most of the parenting. Taking place in a few brief weeks in a
hot May by the sea on the concrete in 1982 as the British task force leaves
Gib and arrives at the Falklands, Neil Warmington has designed a set which,
with Natasha Chivers' lighting and Cormac O'Connor's sound, give lots
of atmosphere to the play's location and time.
The production also contains some fine movement section created by Steven
Hogget displaying this young cast can move like fine modern dancers as
well being clear, tight actors, each one of them. At the top of the play
Doink shows Darren how to prepare an occy, cutting out their brains and
turning them inside out, it's a well choosen metaphore for the play as
we watch how the attractiveness of being macho and the military influence
on the boys changes each one. Examinng our Britishness and how close it
can be to the pack mentality that spawned 50 years earlier the rise of
a fascist state The Straits poses uncomfortable questions for today's
Brits.
© Thelma Good 3 August 2003 - Published on WWW.EdinburghGuide.com
Review
of the 2004 Tour of this production with slightly different cast.
The Straits Tour Schedule 2004
6-17 April at 8pm Tues - Sat Glasgow Tron 0141 552 4267.
20-21 April at Newbury Corn Exchange 01635 522733.
23-24 April at Ipswich Wolsey Theatre 01473 433133.
27 April-1 May at Warwick Arts Centre
5 - 8 May at 8pm Edinburgh Traverse Theatre 0141 228 1404.
12-15 May at Birmingham Rep 0121 236 4455.
18-22 May at Liverpool Everyman 0131 709 4776.
25-29 May at Manchester Contact Theatre 0161 274 3434.
1-5 June at Southampton Nuffield Theatre 023 80 671771.
8-12 June at Poole Lighthouse Theatre
Want to look at more reviews for Edinburgh August Festivals go here.
Theatre Editor, Thelma
Good's e-mail is thelma@edinburghguide.com
Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the
information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted
for any errors or omissions.
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