COYOTE ON A FENCE. To 22 May.
London
COYOTE ON A FENCE
by Bruce Graham
Duchess Theatre To 22 May 2004
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Thu & Sat 3pm
Runs 1hr 40min No interval
TICKETS: 0870 890 1103
Review: Timothy Ramsden 29 April
Interplay of personality illuminates prison drama in fine production.An evening on Death Row isn't everyone's idea of a night out (though some shows seem not that dissimilar). Yet this is a rewarding play, substantial but never monotonous. It comes from Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre Studio (where a level acting area and sense of spacious intensity may have enhanced the piece further). Production and performances easily match those of, say, the Bush or Royal Court.
It's based on American prisoner James Lee Beathard, executed after years of unsuccessful appeals for a crime he didn't commit. The state had questions to answer the matter, but American playwright Graham prefers to examine interwoven characters. Central is the Beathard figure, John Brennan. Protesting his innocence, staying alive through appeals, Brennan's also willing to incur the authorities' wrath by publishing a jailhouse newspaper including sympathetic obituaries for inmates reaching the end of Death Row.
Including Bobby Reyburn, brain damaged before birth, inculcated into White Supremacy as a youngster and awaiting lethal injection. Brennan's cries for help to aid this young man are rejected, even by Reyburn himself. Sure death will lead to instant happiness in Heaven, childlike in his eagerness to please Brennan, Reyburn never regrets killing 37 adults and children by shutting them in, and burning down, their church.
He's forever denouncing Blacks and Jews, yet shies from Black woman prison officer Duchamps whatever his racism, he recognises force and authority. And her apparent friendship with Brennan reverts to force and officialdom when she doesn't get the respect she wants. This is someone working towards her pension, who enjoys the free drinks and limelight journalists afford come execution times.
Jo Martin's utterly convincing as Duchamps. Eric Loren gives earnest goodwill to his New York Times journalist, who in failing to understand Brennan ultimately betrays him. But the central roles are the incarcerated odd couple. Ben Cross is a tall, powerful personality, forceful in argument and physical presence. Alex Ferns capers childishly, smiling, looking up to Brennan, toiling to improve a letter he's writing for the prison paper, lurid in false eye and frond-like tattoos. Sarah Esdaile directs fluently and faultlessly.
John Brennan: Ben Cross
Bobby Alvin Reyburn: Alex Ferns
Shawna Duchamps: Jo Martin
Sam Fried: Eric Loren
Director: Sarah Esdaile
Designer: Matt Atwood
Lighting: Aideen Malone
Sound/Music: Simon Slater
Dialect coach: Lise Olson
Fight director: Terry King
Assistant director: Joseph C Walsh
2004-04-30 00:51:50