★★★☆☆
Three Stars
There were some sizzling moments from the actors in this production, but a general lack of polish and a few first-night hiccups let it down.
The small stage was crammed with props surrounding a big double bed, cluttered and tight. The set itself was tatty – the edges of the door frames were deliberately painted to look run down, which perhaps emphasised themes of decay, but the illusion was completely broken by the sellotape caught in the glint of the spotlights; it was an odd mixture of studied and accidental shabbiness.
Some of the acting was excellent. Sustaining a Mississippi drawl for almost three hours is difficult but most of them pulled it off. Ella Waldman as Maggie stood out: at the beginning she spoke very quickly, but she settled into it and, when she flowed, she was captivating as she talked and talked at Brick.
Ed Price as Brick adopted a strange, slow delivery, forcing every word through a sigh. It was odd, like Marlon Brando doing a bad Christopher Walken impression. But he really looked in pain when he hobbled around on his crutch, and there was complete detachment in his face throughout. Big Momma shuffled in her loud taffeta dress turning her nose up in the air, with furrowed brow and pursed lips. Like the vicar, she brings a bit too much farce to the play when she first appears but, as things turn more serious towards the end, her performance improves and, in the big ensemble family scenes, it works very well.
But what is the period? Besides the taffeta, there was a frilly peach number for Mae, while the men wore plain suit trousers and white shirts – even the doctor and the Reverend, with no indication of who their characters were. The props were a mish-mash of old-fashioned looking things, with no coherence.
There were some excellent and absorbing moments of acting, but other areas need attention. It is easy to forgive a couple of first-night hiccups, but there were a few too many – sputtering sound cues, clattering sets, prop failures and, repeatedly, actors tripping up on the same step. But it is a remarkable script, and probably worth it for that.
