Theatre
OF the many recent theatrical adaptations, Michael Boyd'sdramatisation
of Janice Galloway's award-winning novel is by far the most striking and
innovative, faithful not only to atmosphere and characterisation but
also to stylisation -- invoking Galloway's typographical games with
phrases projected on to gauzy screens -- yet also creating a robust
theatrical language. Arresting images are created and dissolve,
characters appear among the audience -- an imaginative use of space
which makes this intensely personal story seem at once both epic and
intimate.
Boyd directs, reproducing the stream-of-consciousness narration by
having three actresses play the central character Joy Stone, a woman
who, following her lover's death by drowning, is adrift on a sea of
grief, battling with interfering do-gooders as well as her own
depression and doubt. It's a device which could have been troublesome
but here is pulled off with such confidence and aplomb, in both
direction and performances, that at times I was so sucked into Joy's
story I became unaware which actress had just spoken, so completely did
they elide.
They're distinct roles for all that; Jennifer Black playing the Joy
who deals with the world with a very humane mix of irony and bleakness,
Siobhan Redmond fiercely caustic as her constantly questioning inner
consciousness, and Neve McIntosh gently optimistic as a lyrical memory,
her beautiful voice occasionally lifting in dreamy song.
Other performances are similarly high-calibre; Peter Mullan is
outstanding as Joy's terrifying sister Myra, Forbes Masson makes a
coolly uninvolved psychiatrist, Eileen McCallum turns in a series of
assured cameos, while the rest of the 17-strong company offer
magnificent support.
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