At Mercury Theatre |
| Mandan Productions/Mercury Theatre, Wales- A Gringo’s Journey/ Nine Suitcases , Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff , February 15, 2012 |
Two fascinating, vivid and contrasting tales, very different both captivatingly told by two appealing and contrasting actors. In any one-man play the character and personality of the performer will play a strong part in setting the atmosphere. In A Gringo’s Journey Alex Harries’ boyish good nature comes across very strongly and we feel very much that it is the actor himself that has undertaken this arduous and sometimes treacherous journey.Both plays are adaptations by Cardiff based actor, director and teacher David Prince, who also performs the second play of autobiographical works by two very different authors. A Gringo’s Journey is an account, by Chris Osborn, of an extraordinary bicycle journey along the Pacific coast from Vancouver to the furthest reaches of Argentina after he exchanges a Greyhound bus pass for panniers and a bicycle in Denver, Colorado. A mad-cap gripping adventure full of many surprises and good humoured observations of the people and places he meets on the journey. When things go well you can see the satisfied twinkle in Harries’ eye, when they go badly you can see his stomach muscles strain. Despite some minor flaws in the style of the production, he really makes you feel that he has done this journey himself and he relives it here with absolute conviction. Supported by some very skilful percussion work from Matt Salisbury, Harries’ cycling mime is very effective, no more so than when he finds himself lost on the salt plains of Peru, the isolation and the terror, the reflected sun very near blinding him. Almost miraculously he finds his way out of this and ends on the philosophical note; “A bicycle is something that you pedal and it goes.” In Béla Zsolt’s Nine Suitcases, a work that has been described as “One of the greatest memoirs of the Holocaust ever written” from Ladislaus Lob’s translation, David Prince takes us on a much more terrifying journey. It gives not only a rare insight into Hungarian fascism, but also a shocking exposure to the cruelty, indifference, selfishness, cowardice and betrayal of which human beings—the victims no less than the perpetrators—are capable in extreme circumstances. On a grey bare stage Prince takes us very graphically into this nightmare world and he makes us see with our own eyes the horrors that lie around him and he brings to life a range of characters and wheeler dealer stories that are the day to day happenings in this hell. This is a beautifully pitched low key performance that consumes our imaginations. Many moments again here underlined by the exquisite and empathic music from Bethan Morgan. Prince’s performance leaves a lingering memory that becomes difficult to erase. |
Reviewed by: Michael Kelligan |
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