Modern Passion in a Revitalised Chekhov
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2 The Gazette, Thursday February 18, 2016 Theatre: The Critics Less bite but still shattering RE:HOME 11-year olds who were interviewed YARD THEATRE HACKNEY in 2005. We hear Brown off-camera ###$$ and the cast of four present her words, heedless of gender and ethnic divides. Projections In 2006 Cressida Brown staged flash up statistics: out of the ‘Home’, a promenade performance 4490 original residents, only 239 set in the notorious high-rise remain. Rumbling urban sounds Beaumont Estate Towers in bolster a sense of menace. While Leyton, prior to its demolition. the council’s policy of not offering The play was inspired by new homes in rebuilt Beaumont interviews with local residents. to original residents is deeply In Re:Home Brown revisits the troubling, the loaded mood is Beaumont ‘base’ to track down misleading: it’s not the unearthing what happened to the people she of some shattering mystery. The interviewed. In its place, Brown talented cast morph into multiple finds a low-rise layout, box-ticking residents from pensioners to green spaces and a maze of hoop- wardens to teenage crews. The jumping internal security - an warmth that residents felt for the example of a council’s attempt at former community life is palpable. social engineering. It’s significant Verbatim lines are full of wit and that this production is not staged wisdom. Some of the original on-site but at the local Yard interviewees did well - Darren Theatre. Like the Beaumont new became a youth worker - but build, some bite has gone others can’t resist returning to the Paul Rhys and Jessica Brown Findlay picture: Manuel Harlan and the production roots that formed their identity. tries too hard to When the telling moves away entertain. from a preoccupation with its Using hand-held own creative process to the Modern passion in a camera footage heartbreaking human story from the original of Frankie – a particularly play, Re:Home happy child – who is is structured murdered as a teenager, the around the real- issues are shattering in revitalised Chekhov life stories of their simplicity. Caroline David UNCLE VANYA conveys the steady march of time, dangerous, while the white-hot ALMEIDA the inexorable futility of these erotic encounter that shatters the ####$ unfulfilled lives. The farmer’s stasis of Vanessa Kirby’s complex wasted years of unappreciated golden girl and Tobias Menzies’ fter putting a modern toil; the ageing professor failing comfortably numb doctor lingers spin on the Oresteia, to achieve immortality through agonisingly. Jessica Brown with memorable results, second-rate work; the doctor’s Findlay’s outwardly tough Sonya Adirector Robert Icke losing battle against environmental lays herself open with exquisite takes on another classic. destruction; and the romantic hopefulness; Hilton McRae’s No samovars here: Icke has longing never to be sated. Vivid professor is coolly vampiric; stripped back, anglicised and releases; rocking out to Iggy Pop Richard Lumsden offers a resonant revitalised Chekhov, obliterating and Bowie; pummelling a bouquet running gag, constantly pausing the space between story and of flowers, burn bright, but are his guitar playing to retune; and spectator. His zoomed-in vision swiftly snuffed out. Ann Queensberry’s nurturing offers rich, intimate psychology, Icke’s effective fragmentary Nanny highlights the family’s but it’s also naturalism bereft of adaptation is composed of arrested development. Hildegard context – present-day rural lyrical, darkly funny failed Bechtler’s revolving set honours England as murky substitute for communications. When the different perspectives, but also the remote 19th-century Russian yearning for understanding creates major sightline issues. province facing seismic change. grows too great, the actors jump It’s an unnecessary addition to Yet this is otherwise a beautifully off the stage to deliver naked a version that finds resounding detailed, immersive world, confessionals directly to us. Paul contemporary passion in a timeless unspooling over a quietly mesmeric Rhys as the tragic title character tale of inaction. Picture: Mark three-plus hours. Icke masterfully is drained, pained and genuinely Marianka Swain Douet Explicit but vital look at Grindr generation togs are off and five magnificent We are left feeling the men 5 GUYS CHILLIN’ physiques spend the next 75 involved in this dark world are THE KING’S HEAD, ISLINGTON minutes bobbing around in posing there not because they want to be ####$ pouches and baggy vests. but because they can be. One says Darney deploys the verbatim that before drugs it was possible to It is 36 years since the furore that style to explore the anonymous and have relationships – but not now. greeted Howard Brenton’s The often sordid world inhabited by This world has been enabled by Romans in Britain. The action many young gay men. Fifty hours the availability of a sophisticated included a male rape scene that of interviews with men on Grindr drugs market and an NHS that is sent Mary Whitehouse and her have been condensed and given to unquestioningly there to treat the legions into fits of outrage. five brilliantly crafted characters rashes, discharges and palpitations While it’s unlikely 5 Guys with diverse backgrounds and when they inevitably arrive. Chillin’ will evoke such a response, motivations. This brilliant play is an the sheer shock value of the most The terrifically sharp and witty acknowledgement not just of the extreme dialogue and action I’ve script presents the mores, morals dangers to the men themselves but seen on stage is not for the faint and etiquette of often violent sex also of the massive public health hearted. with strangers, sharing direct challenge from the rise of STDs. Peter Darney’s play is about five experiences and introducing Don’t go if you like safe theatre. men relaxing before a chemsex members of the audience to some Book now if you want to find out party. Having taken a few lines extreme practices through words just how liberal minded you are. Picture: Kasia Burke of cocaine, it is not long before and simulation. David Winskill.