If you’re going to watch this play out of voyeuristic intentions, perhaps just stick to the internet. However, if you want a performance that provokes at once the high-spirits following the 2012 Olympics announcement,the fragility and perversity of seemingly ‘normal’ people anda gradual descent into the social maelstrom surrounding the July bombings of 2005, then this is the play for you.
‘Pornography’ had its UK premier at the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and for anyone with an interest in the playwright, I have been promised that Simon Stephens will be at the first night of the show and will be taking questions afterwards.
The set was nothing special, but I don’t think it needed to be; distinguishing between the various rooms was not difficult and the nature of each was developed progressively.The only confusion was between characters – especially atthe start, it is tough trying to workout who is who, but as the play goes on things do get marginally easier. Joe Murphy, the director, however,did have his actors almost immaculately well-timed: transitions between scenes were picked up nicely and during the various soliloquies the frozen tableaux were uninterrupted (with the exception of a bit of corpsing, but I accept this as a trivial point).
What I really liked about the performance was that the casting seemed, to me at least, to be seamless;the brother (Max Gill) and sister (Charlotte Salkind) could have been related, Jason (Chris Greenwood) did actually look like the archetype of the Aryan race, and Rory Fazan portrayed both disillusioned husband and lonely tutor as if he were born for the part. Unfortunately the miming of various coffee cups didn’t really do it for me, the strongest, but smallest, criticism I have of the play.
Chloe Orrock, who plays the mother, began the play with a monologue that developed well, finely balancing the comic with the tragic,revealing with it the gradual natureof the play itself – everything seems fine on the surface, but slowly we realise it is abounding in sociopaths.She had a command of the stage and used it to its full potential. Anna Maguire, in similar fashion, stoodout and broke down accordingly.Tim Kiely, who enacted the journey proper that led to the 7/7 bombings,was disturbingly convincing and I perhaps did flinch when he picked up his rucksack.
It might not be too absurd to say that this really was a play’s play –there is a heavy fourth wall which does not let the audience get too close. The isolation of the lives we see is almost suffocating and the general pessimism of the plot shows a certain foresight on the playwright’s part. In my opinion, it sums up very well the first decade of this century and is certainly worth watching. And don’t worry, for those who want to see something a bit racy, the siblings won’t disappoint…
3.5 stars
BT Studio, 19:30 Tues-Sat 2nd Week
