| Stirring yet wistful |
At Hijinx Theatre |
| Hijinx in Association with The Riverfront- Miss Brown to You , Riverfront Theatre Newport , March 6, 2009 |
This is one of the first of the Arts Council of Wales’ new initiatives to enable producing companies to work in association with venues to bring exciting work to the stage. Wales based author Alan Harris brings us a stirring yet wistful account of a small family struggling in the meagre early years of World War Two. Emily’s Aunt Rhoda runs a failing village shop in the village of Llanrhiw with the assistance of her son, a Calon Lân singing lad approaching his eighteenth birthday. Because of the intensity of the war activity in London, Rhoda’s sister has sent her daughter Emily to stay with her in the safety of remote Wales; Emily is not an evacuee but a young teenager with Downs Syndrome and so is actor Sarah Pickard who gives an extraordinary performance. She is one feisty lady and working with director Gaynor Lougher she charms and captivates us brilliantly. Lots of steam bellows on to the stage as the London train arrives. Miss Brown stands lonely in the dim light waiting to be met. Eventually Sergeant Price finds her. How Sergeant Price, who talks to her as if he thinks she is some kind of idiot, demonstrated the good sense to rise through the police ranks is a bit of a puzzle but, as they say, "there's nowt as queer as folk". Darren Stokes gives us a strong and intelligent performance. We do find out, towards the end of the play that he is quite a shifty character. It seems that he is in love with widowed Rhoda and has asked her to marry him several times, eventually she agrees but then just before the knot is about to be tied events take a turn that knocks this on the head. He diverts David, a gentle and sincere performance from Joshua McCord, with tales of his heroics in the First World War. This troubles Rhoda as she feels it will persuade her son to be eager to off go to fight as soon as his time comes. All this time Rhoda is finding Emily very difficult to handle. Rhoda is a devoting mother but she does find life hard, Julia Wyndham’s is a compassionate, engaging performance that slips a little too easily from one mood to another. I‘m sure she will soon find more of the subtleties of the character. Apart from the difference in musical preferences she and David seem to be developing a degree of understanding. Emily begins to gain a degree of independence and starts to explore the surrounding hills. She discovers a young man, Stanley, hiding on the mountain; he’s a doppelganger for David which brings yet another note of poignancy to this moving story. Daniel Wallace develops this by cleverly echoing the style of McCord and strongly drawing our sympathy towards himself and Emily as strong feelings emerge between them. I’m afraid we must leave them there, as to say more would be to give too much away. I emerged from this production with a feeling of well being rather like after a good meal, but a meal that did not completely satisfy. |
Reviewed by: Michael Kelligan |
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