| "Owen’s jaggedly tender script" |
At the Royal Court |
| Gary Owen- Violence and Son , Royal Court Theatre , June 10, 2015 |
Michael Billington was at "Violence and Son":"Gary Owen has written a seriously good play, set in small-town south Wales, about violence, love and loss. But, for all the play’s sensitivity and insight, Owen in the end manipulates character to prove his point that the worst aspects of a macho culture are passed on from one generation to the next. "Owen sets up the situation beautifully. We meet 17-year-old Liam, still grieving for the mother who brought him up, and now living uneasily with his hard-drinking, violent father, Rick. When Liam brings home a friend and fellow Dr Who addict, Jen, we see both his touching affection for the girl and the disastrous impact of Rick on a burgeoning relationship. What is especially good about the play is its downright condemnation of a bullying male ethos and its acknowledgment that domestic violence has its own complexities: while the geeky Liam admits he provokes his dad on purpose, both Rick and his lover, Suze, are in abject denial about the realities of physical abuse. "Precisely because the play tackles a big issue with such honesty and truth, I find it hard to accept its final plot-contrivance. But this cannot diminish the force of Hamish Pirie’s Theatre Upstairs production, nor the impact of the performances. "David Moorst outstandingly catches Liam’s mix of smart-arse knowingness, sexual nervousness and aching loneliness. Jason Hughes as Rick conveys a permanent sense of danger, Morfydd Clark as Jen suggests the wariness of a girl who has stumbled into a domestic minefield and Siwan Morris lends substance to the more sketchily written Suze. A fine play that would be even better if it left the situation unresolved." Extracts with thanks from the full review which can be read at: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jun/09/violence-and-son-review-royal-court From the British Theatre Guide:: "...it is heartening to report that in this new play by Gary Owen they have a really fine piece of writing in a memorable production that is fully in line with the radical and deliberately discomfiting traditions of this theatre. The action is disconcerting and uncomfortable at times to watch and until its denouement entirely convincing. "....Liam (David Moorst) enters to direct proceedings dressed as Matt Smith’s Dr. Similar interludes with sonic screwdrivers and light sabres follow to accompany the scene changes. These are not merely or mainly decorative and diverting. Instead, they establish one of the key themes of this many-layered play, namely, Liam’s need to find one aspect of his life, where just for a moment he can feel in control of his destiny, as subject rather than object. His is a character where powerlessness is the norm, where the challenge is to find both means of survival and means of self-assertion. The course of the play is charted through the rivalrous ways in which the other characters offer suggestions and temptations for his achieving those goals while simultaneously creating obstacles too. "...Rick, in the meantime, has settled into a steady routine of drinking and whoring with bursts of extravagant aggression that can break out unexpectedly. He is a brooding presence of initially few words, softened to an extent by the presence of his regular girlfriend Suze(Siwan Morris) who shares his taste for booze and rowdy nights out. "Into this domestic setting comes Jen (Morfydd Clark), a friend of Liam’s with whom he has just attended a ‘Dr Who’ fan convention. The action plays out continuously over one evening once Jen cannot get a taxi home and has to sleep over. "...while never trying to make any excuse or extenuation for acts of physical and sexual violence, Gary Owen is adept in pointing out ways in which the characters wind each other up, sometimes deliberately, in order to elicit a response that they must know is likely to end badly. This applies to all the relationships involved: Liam both detests his father and desperately wants to be noticed and to win his respect; Suze craves Rick’s attention and will go to mutually undermining lengths to obtain it; and Jen presents herself to Liam as both a friend and something more than that in a way that leaves him and the audience confused as to her real intentions. "Secondly, the writing shows rare skill in illustrating how all of the characters interact so damagingly with one another because in reality they are all operating in their own bubbles and not imaginatively engaging with one another at all. This is particularly the case with Rick/Vile who cannot think outside the life of daily drinking, easy sexual conquest, and violent reactions to frustration that have been the themes of his life. One of the points the play makes repeatedly, perhaps over didactically by the end, is that a refusal to listen or even notice other people leads inexorably to the bludgeoning imposition of both viewpoints and fists. "...after so much fine work in developing subtle character and situation the ending is jarring and not readily equated or joined with what has gone before...an unresolved tension between the consistent and thoughtful development of character and the need for yet further twists in the plot. For me the ending was simply one switchback too far that helps neither the argument nor the drama." Source: https://britishtheatre.com/review-violence-and-son-jerwood-theatre-upstairs-4stars/ |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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