Kings Head Theatre, London
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Gathered in the amicable room of the King’s Head Theatre, a
chill is present as the audience arrive for the anticipated return of Albert
Camus’ Absurdist novelty Cross Purpose. Before the play has even begun,
the eerie underscore provides a jarring echo that alerts the audience to the
troubles that lie ahead. These audio qualities underplay throughout the
performance, chiming at moments to frame the barren mysteries that unfold. The
unsettling nature of this production immediately engulfs you ensuring that you
are constantly looking over your shoulder.
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| Photo: Chris Gardner |
The dusty ornaments that litter the stage and the stained,
peeling wallpaper of the set provide the perfect grotesque backdrop for the two
women that take to the stage. As the play shudders into life we are thrown into
the tiring lives of Martha and her Mother, a murderous duo who rob wealthy
travellers staying at their guesthouse, and subsequently drown them in the
river. The set provides a perfect snapshot into the conversations that are
witnessed and overheard when secretes ripple through the walls and are shut
away behind closed doors. Indeed, each character creeps between scenes as if to
avoid disturbing the perfect upset that is harmlessly bubbling in this Absurdist
drama.
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The play is riddled with unfulfilled fantasies, revealing
characters with underlying elements of suffering brought to a head during
moments of emotional anguish. The general execution of the acting was
admirable, most notably Jamie Birkett playing the sinister Martha. In an
intensely dark performance (the role that gained her an Off West End Award
nomination), Birkett immediately captures her audience as she marches through
the door, elevating this gaunt, eye-rolling daughter with the hoarse voice of
Camus’ Absurdist Realism. Beyond the beautifully shabby costume, Director
Stephen Whitson has successfully presented us with a surprising anti-hero found
in a bleak young woman, fated to live in torment.
Paddy Navin appears here as the aged Mother who longs for
rest after a lifetime’s worth of killings. Navin executes the character’s
complexity effortlessly, moving with ease between humorous snaps at her
daughter to monologues of tender self-loathing. For audiences that were
expecting more absurdity from Whitson’s take on the Camus classic, the slow
pace of the Mother can jar with that of Martha’s sharp and frantic, movements,
meaning that her heightened, menacing potential is never fully reached.
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The entrance of Jan (David Lomax), the son who has come home
anonymously to spend a night in his mother’s guesthouse, and doting wife Maria
(Kemi-Bo Jacobs), marks a break in the grim outlook of the play, and reveals
the desired human emotion that has been drained from Martha and her Mother. The
level of absurdity prior to their entrance, however, needed to have been more
heightened to mark the deliberate visual contrast between the two pairs. In a
final climactic dialogue between Martha and Maria, Jacobs crumbles
spectacularly into the lovesick wreck with the news that her husband is dead.
Birkett’s deadpan delivery in this section allowed confident laughter amongst
the audience, which is then strangely silenced following Jacobs’ captivating
dramatic reaction. In such areas, Whitson’s intentions seem slightly muddled
and as a result the humour falls a little short. Nevertheless, the play holds
your attention and marks a successful revival of the Camus script, in which the
writer’s own haunting outlook on life is incessant. As mysterious servant
Leonard Fenton’s final line encapsulates: even when help is being cried out
for, Cross Purpose will boldly tell you “No”.
This production runs until 2 February 2013
For more information: https://kingsheadtheatre.ticketsolve.com/shows/873487281/events
@KingsHeadThtr
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