A THOUSAND YARDS. To 25 June.
A THOUSAND YARDS
by A N Zakarian
Southwark Playhouse To 25 June 2005
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 3pm
Runs 1hr 50min One interval
TICKETS: 08700 600100 (24 hrs; booking fee)
www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 18 June
Horrors prove blinding in promising play that could do with more focus.Technology can flash photos of horrors round the world in minutes; 5 o'clock's atrocity can easily be in the 6 o'clock edition. Abi Zakarian asks how this might play on the optic nerve. As the images cut quick and sharp, photo-editor Lucy's sight progressively shorten and blurs. She's sent to consult maverick medic Tobits, who prescribes her, unknowingly though she eventually works it out, a dose of 17-year old Kid A.
Names seem an issue; Kid A won't answer to his real name, Jeremy, while Lucy spurns her original Lucia. His 17-year old sparkiness wakes something in her 36-year old consciousness that ex-lover, photojournalist Hal with his dedication to the sharp end of reporting, cannot.
Hal and Lucia's emotional entanglement clouds the wider issue; is it their past involvement that applies the pressure within Lucy, or purely the processing of horrors? She asks Hal to provide her with beautiful photos, sunsets on water, which he does. Her sight arrests without improving. Is this because the new photos have some impact; limited because they're done from duty rather than the obsession Hal brings to war reporting? I think we should be told.
Kid A lies, but not about the paintings he takes Lucy to see in the National Gallery. These visits help, more than Tobits, an unconvincing portrait which reduces John Webb to over-fussiness in Roisin McBrinn's production for Feast Theatre. This is competent but dull, never overcoming the traipsing in and out with furniture between short scenes, and more importantly never encouraging any but the most obvious playing of the script.
It takes time for even the fine Susan Vidler to rise above the mundane; her best opportunities come with the more extended scenes. And Gerard Kearns brings a lively freshness to the unpredictable Kid A, whose temporary eye-patch gives rise to the play's best joke and who, being nearest the edge of its thematic area, has most individual life.
Still, Fest Theatre's for new writers, who rarely bring instant perfection. Zakarian has an interesting subject and can afford to loosen up her characters from their binding theme next time.
Hal: Ruairi Conaghan
Lucy: Susan Vidler
Dr Tobits: John Webb
Kid A: Gerard Kearns
Director: Roisin McBrinn
Designer: Paul Wills
Lighting: Davis Plater
Sound: Mike Walker
2005-06-19 13:51:35