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Masthead
London Review
Animal
by Brian Clover
|
Talking has been useful as a diagnostic tool.
--- Dr Lee |
Kay Adshead's Animal is set in a psychiatric research centre. This is a pleasant place, nestling in a park and staffed by decent caring professionals. Old down-and-out Pongo (Richard Owens), a dirty, cursing, spitting piece of wasted humanity, is nurtured by Dr Lee (Fiona Bell) and nurse Elmo (Mark Monero). They use experimental drugs to recover the Peter inside Pongo, a damaged man of intelligence and sensitivity. But is Peter "cured" or is he still a danger to himself and others? Do these drugs have any other effects? Who is running the programme? Why?
We quickly realise that this centre is an oasis of calm in a troubled world. Outside there are riots, brutality, and deaths as the state tries to repress those, mostly women, who are protesting a war. The characters react to these horrors in different ways. Dr Lee's work is inspired by her hatred of violence. On the other hand, hedonist Elmo is a classic shallow male who goes to demonstrations simply to prey sexually on generous-hearted women. Peter is detached, more concerned to recover memories of his wasted life. But things are about to change.
Animal deals with big issues: the meaning of deviancy, the value of suffering, the ethics of research, gender relations, and the violence of a male-dominated world. Kay Adshead writes with wit and power, and is fortunate in having a cast to match. Richard Owens is moving, funny and nuanced in showing Pongo turn into Peter. Fiona Bell ably conveys the dilemmas of Dr Lee and Mark Monero is a finely strutting Elmo. Soutra Gilmour's minimal set is quietly effective, its suspended cctv cameras hinting at the real purpose of the centre.
But Animal feels like two different plays strapped together by an idea. One play centres on Peter and is a meditation on madness, memory, pain and redemption, not unlike Joe Penhall's Blue/Orange. The other is the parable of a male supremacist who meets his nemesis. Elmo's misogynistic stand-up comedy act, in which he verbally abuses the women he has physically exploited, is blighted by women who literally do stand up to bear witness against him. (The phallic undertones of "stand-up" are surely deliberate.)
The ideological glue holding these together is the threat of social control through the use of drugs, "a peace inducing chemical weapon", as Dr Lee boasts, and perhaps this idea just isn't strong enough. It doesn't surprise, it is contentious and, more seriously, its implications are left unexamined. Moreover, there is little actual drama in Animal : off-stage events are painted verbally with great skill, but the on-stage interactions are somewhat strained. The one exception is when Dr Lee launches into an extended monologue about her own childhood. It is interesting, but would any nursing mother really do this while a psychotic patient stands two feet away clutching her baby?
Animal is a powerful piece, but one where the ideas seem to lead the characters, rather than the other way round. However, this still makes for a challenging ninety minutes of theatre.
For a review of The Illustrious Corpse go here.
| Animal
Written by Kay Adshead Directed by Lisa Goldman With: Fiona Bell, Richard Owens, Mark Monero, Denise Evans Designer: Soutra Gilmour Lighting Designer: Chahine Yavroyan Sound: Matt McKenzie Music: Patrick Tenyue CCTV: Owen Oppenheimer The Red Room Production Running time: Ninety minutes with no interval Box Office: 020 7478 0136 Booking to 27th September 2003 Reviewed by Brian Clover based on 10th August 2003 Performance at the Soho Theatre, Dean Street, W1 (Tube Station: Tottenham Court Road or Leicester Square) |
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