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KINDERTRANSPORT
By Diane Samuels
Shared Experience
Directed by Polly Teale
Hampstead Theatre
Swiss Cottage, London NW3 3EU
Designed by Jonathan Fensom
Lighting design by Natasha Chivers
Composer & Sound Designer Peter Salem
Call +44 (0) 20 7722 9301 Tickets £10 - £22
Mon – Sat 7.30pm; Sat 3.00pm
Running time 1 hour 50 mins with intermission
Through 26 May
A Long Way From Home
Diane Samuels’ powerful, original and excoriating story of separation and loss, has its genesis in the transportation of 10,000 children from the horrors of Nazi Germany to the sanctuary of England. It removes the child from the parent, and draws the parent of the nascent adult out of the bereft child. The offspring of this generation inherit the fruit of seeds sewn in trauma. Tantalisingly drawn by Miss Samuels’, schism is the leitmotif of the story. It starts the dialogue, and continues to inform all the relationships in the intense narrative right to the poignant end.
Take this deep emotional seam and offer it to the Shared Experience Company to mine, and you would expect the resultant ore to be rich indeed. Matti Houghton as the appealing young Eva brought a strong sense of vulnerability and self belief to her work, Pandora Colin’s Helga was possessed of a credible dignity, and Eileen O’Brien’s Lil, was an adoptive mother that we all recognise. Otherwise, however, the protagonists did not seem able to access the warmth or depth of suppressed Jewish emotion and pain when needed, substituting this with familiar theatricality. Perhaps the long UK tour that preceded this run has left the cast with well rehearsed rhythms into which new life could not be breathed. Scenes between Marion Bailey and the out of depth Lily Bevan descended at times into stilted melodrama, missing an essential truth altogether. Given the difficult task of being pervading without intruding, Alexi Kaye Campbell made a fist of the Ratcatcher, but the other cameo roles he essayed drifted into caricature.
The atmosphere created by Peter Salem’s subtle sound gave an evocative accompaniment to the evening, but the all purpose set, which should have reeked of the times simply looked haphazard, standing one all purpose old cupboard next to another. Occasionally an exciting visual dimension was lent the piece, but these were all too few.
Shared experience announces itself as ‘taking risks that define the possibilities of performance’. It would seem that, however well meaning, the tried and trusted techniques were wheeled out by director Polly Teale to little useful purpose here. The extraordinary and brilliant play required extraordinary and brilliant direction and acting. It didn’t get it. Something altogether different is needed to tap life’s truths of their bitter juices. I left unmoved, and pleased that the play was not overly long.
Somewhat recommended
Saul Reichlin
London Correspondent
Talk Theatre in Chicago Podcast
www.ChicagoCritic.com
Date reviewed April 25, 2007
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