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Message heard loud and clear
Mark Nattrass as Ray and Jayne Lunn as Molly Dusk Rings a Bell The Old Joint Stock ***** A BRIEF forgotten romance from teen years
may not have shaped or influenced the lives of the summer holiday lovers
of Stephen Belber's 2010 play but it was a little milestone, a minor
reference point for two lives which have both lost direction in their
journey through the years. Jayne Lunn is Molly, a
divorced PR executive in the Washington bureau of CNN, with a seemingly
comfortable life who opens with a me,
I, my self-centred, self-everything
monologue telling us about how she once stuttered but told herself:
“self – stop!” which self did as she gave up stuttering for screwing. As a scene setter it is a scene in itself then up
pops Ray, played by Mark Nattrass, a would be heart surgeon who ekes out
a living as a caretaker for off seasonal holiday along with odd-job
gardening. The two have a past and from that past grew futures which are much different than those they dreamed about on an evening of romance on the lifeguard station all those years ago.
Lunn gives us a self-confident communicator – a
word Molly likes – who has decided to revisit her past not to find Ray –
his return to her life is an accident – but to find a part of herself.
She is completely believable, adding sexuality to the role of the late
30 something East coast successful, if somewhat unfulfilled, executive
where sex is a recreational rather than emotional pursuit. Ray is altogether more complex, so much so he
doesn't really understand himself and Nattrass beautifully portrays the
careworn look of a man who has had more than his fair share of the
world's troubles piled on his shoulders. Back in 1985 Ray and Molly were merely necking
with Ray fumbling hard for more – because that was what boys were
expected to do. A lifetime later the foreplay is more quizzical
than physical as Molly probes and Ray is forced to reveal that his
dreams evaporated when he was sentenced to 10 years in jail. The reason still troubles Ray as he tries to
figure out if he is a moral coward, hiding or sneaking away whenever a
crisis appears, refusing to confront his own demons. Almost inevitably with two characters who are
both divorced and both now single, and who once shared a night kissing
on the beach, they end up in bed, almost as if to consummate what they
started a quarter of a century ago, and then head, their separate ways
never to meet again, she to die of a brain tumour at 59, he set to die
at 92 hoping to have the image and taste of the “girl with syrup lips”
as his last vision on earth. The ply has an even more interesting background
than the characters with this production starting life in May 2013 at
Highbury Theatre Centre to critical acclaim by our reviewer Jeff Grant (See
here).
It was enough to decide director Faye Hatch
and Jayne to start their own professional company – Lucky Arrow
Productions – and this is their first venture into the altogether
tougher uncompromising world of professional theatre. Borrowing the stark set of bleachers and
boardwalks from the Highbury production as well as the clever lighting
and back projection this has been an impressive venture into the
professional world. Lunn and Nattrass give exceptional performances -
and accents that had a degree of authenticity - as the flawed couple,
all helped by Hatch's clear direction. Keep it simple and no one,
neither actor nor audience, gets confused. Apparently this production
was her first time in charge and a more than creditable effort she has
made of it.
New ventures need to encouragement and it is a
great pity that such a fine production opened to such as small audience
at the OJS. It deserves much better. To 09-11-13 Roger Clarke
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