Blue Heart - At The Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond
Two exhilarating one act plays by visionary playwright Caryl Churchill
Janet Henfrey and Alex Beckett
Caryl Churchill's duo of playlets are about the tricks the mind can play when emotions are running high. They're clever, surprising, disturbing and very funny, but not without some sadness. The first, the manic Heart's Desire, is about a family waiting for the return of their daughter Susy from Australia. The second Blue Kettle is more serious, about four women in search of the sons they gave up for adoption at birth.
Susy is late and the family are beginning to worry, totally preoccupied with thoughts of what might have happened to her. Their fears becoming reality with every ring of the door bell - has there been an accident, is she delayed at passport control, where did that emu come from and who let the SAS in? Fact and fiction swap places outrageously as the story is told in a series of time shifts, going back to the beginning, but always with a different ending. It cracks along at a giddying pace, with no clue as to what might happen next. Sometimes the action is fast forwarded to get things back into real time, but real time brings its own set of problems, a situation not helped by the arrival of drunken son Lewis. Things get so bad that the father imagines eating himself, wondering what happens when there's only his mouth left. "Can a mouth eat a mouth?" he asks. By the time Susy arrives nothing for this family is going to be the same again.
Mona Goodwin and Alex Beckett
There's a change of pace with Blue Kettle. It's about four women and a man called Derek who has made all four believe he’s the son they gave up for adoption at birth. He meets them all, spinning a series of yarns, and they're all so desperate to believe him they convince themselves of family likenesses.
However, as the plot gets more complex and the four mothers want to know more about their 'son', the dialogue takes an odd twist as the as the words blue and kettle pop up at random. Slowly, almost imperceptibly at first then more frequently as the tension mounts until towards the end they are almost the only words. Yet, in spite of the fact that it's bordering on gibberish, it's quite comprehensible, showing that when things go out of control, it's not the words that matter so much as the feelings.
Brilliant direction is by David Mercatali with a terrific cast, some of whom pop up in both plays, including Andy de la Tour, Amelda Brown, Amanda Boxer, Janet Henfrey and Derek Beckett.
Penny Flood
Images:
The Other Richard
October 21, 2016