In The Two Character Play Zubin Varla and Kate O'Flynn play brother and sister actors Felice and Clare; they will be performing in a play Felice himself wrote, a two character play called The Two Character Play, in which they will play brother and sister Felice and Clare.
In the play-within-a-play, two siblings never leave the house where their parents died in a murder-suicide. Their grisly family history has made their small Southern town suspicious of them, which only compounds their agoraphobia. With money running out and the grocery store no longer delivering supplies, they need to build up the courage to go out, but can never manage it. But the actors playing them aren't just a framing device: Abandoned by the rest of their acting troupe in the middle of nowhere because they think they're insane, performing a play they don't yet have an ending for, to an audience that dwindles as the night goes on, and bickering on stage as they rewrite the play on the hoof, actors and characters constantly bleed into each other.
Sam Yates' production makes the play's overt theatricality even more stark, on Rosanna Vize's stripped-back stage with video design by Akhila Krishnan and van Hove-style live close-ups projected onto the back wall. It's a deft way to bring a play steeped in an atmosphere of old-fashioned touring rep companies into the present day, and show that Williams' musings on theatre, and the line between reality and artifice, can haunt modern-day theatre practitioners with state-of-the-art equipment every bit as much as someone touring dusty old venues in forgotten American towns in the 1960s.
While Williams himself seems to have cited The Two Character Play as among his favourites of his own work, it's not particularly surprising if the world at large hasn't taken it to heart in the same way. Despite the complexity of its themes - the surreal look at co-dependency in the play-within-a-play would be enough for many absurdist plays, before you even add on the metatheatrical layers - it only occasionally sparks into life. However good the production and cast are, and they're all throwing a lot of ideas and energy into the play, there's still no getting around how much of the dialogue goes round in circles. Near the end Yates, lighting designer Lee Curran and sound designer Dan Balfour take the play on an abrupt left turn into horror tropes that really ramp up the existential dread that's been bubbling under the surface. If they could have found more opportunities to disrupt and defy expectations earlier in the play it might have avoided some of the many times when the interest levels drop, but ultimately Williams only gives them so much to work with in a play that's not without interest, but largely as a curiosity.
PS Of the theatres I've been to since Covid rules were relaxed, Hampstead does by the far the best job at making the audience feel safe: The usual pointless hand sanitiser stations are still around* but the focus is much more on how well ventilated the auditorium is, with social distancing having been voluntarily kept on for the time being, and regular reminders for everyone to keep their masks on throughout the show.
The Two Character Play by Tennessee Williams is booking until the 28th of August at Hampstead Theatre.
Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes including interval.
Photo credit: Marc Brenner.
*to be honest these may be a red herring as far as Covid is concerned but I'm happy if they stay a feature in public places in the future; if they stop other viruses from being spread around that's fine by me, as long as people are still also doing the stuff that actually deters Covid
No comments:
Post a Comment