Sunday, 27 November 2011
Venue Magazine: FLARE PATH
Venue Magazine: FLARE PATH: You should have been there to experience that emotionally charged night. Flare Path had all the ingredients - the tense wartime setting, t...
Venue Magazine: FLARE PATH
Venue Magazine: FLARE PATH: You should have been there to experience that emotionally charged night. Flare Path had all the ingredients - the tense wartime setting, t...
FLARE PATH
It's a cloistered little world here in Larkhall and, wandering suavely in one evening, Matt Nation's aging matinée idol might as well have been from another planet. Certainly that's how Doris (Louise Wallace), a dotty barmaid married to a Polish count stationed on the base, receives him, clucking in delight at this celluloid vision made flesh. But when she shushes him so she can listen to a plane pass by, it's the first hint that Peter's plans to fly in and dazzle his ex-lover may encounter turbulence.
Of course it's partly wartime propaganda: Peter is the cosseted cad, his failings exposed by the R.A.F. 'lads'. But there's so much more to Rattigan than that, and Taylor's poignant production is alive to to the plays' bittersweet textures. What Doris and Teddy know and Patricia and Peter come to learn, is that for all life's myriad subtleties, sometimes there is no option but to exist only in black and white. It's a lesson Matt Nation's Peter finally learns in a moving flood of tears. And it's a way of life that Wallace's Doris lives to the full. From the way she expresses her hurt at a snide comment only via a look in her eyes as she exits, to the gravitas she injects into to the saccharine ending, there's an ocean of feeling behind her cheery façade.
Patricia Graham's inner conflict feels tangible as she tries to contain the emotional roller coaster welling up inside her. The killer 'app' of Teddys' phrase 'Moral fibre' finally spills over her into a bright lustre of love for a man she barely knew, and so Peters fate was sealed.
Elsewhere, I loved Paul Olding's Italianesque Polish pilot whose stumbling vocabulary tickled the rib cage with gusto. Taylor's production is very good, and mention should go to some fine supporting turns from Bobbie Tan, Andrew Fletcher, Michael Comba, Carenza Ellery and Steve Curtis.
The whole production team should be praised for their efforts in creating such an authentic platform from which Flare Path was launched. The attention to detail was subtle and eye catching from the stage management of Tony Wood, lighting and design operation of Tony White, the sound designs from Paul Olding, lighting and sound operation from Adrian and Ros Cottle, the Set by Northend Productions, Properties Bobbie Tan, production assistance from Sally Collins, Costumes by Chrissy Fryers to the hair by Charlotte Howard.
For me the evening beautifully captured both the sense of danger and its boozy, raucous aftermath. The performances were impeccable. Harriet Pocock looked suitably strained, tense and taut as the agonised Patricia. Matt Nation admirably conveys the sense of exclusion felt by the movie star caught up in wartime action. You could feel the tears welling up as he hesitatingly translates to the Countess (Louise Wallace) whose features light up as she learns how much she was loved by her missing-in-action husband. Rob Dawsons' performance is nothing short of serene despite the emotional turmoil surrounding him and the atmospherics generated in the one to one scenes of each of the participants was frankly electric. You should have been there...
DeafboyOne
Of course it's partly wartime propaganda: Peter is the cosseted cad, his failings exposed by the R.A.F. 'lads'. But there's so much more to Rattigan than that, and Taylor's poignant production is alive to to the plays' bittersweet textures. What Doris and Teddy know and Patricia and Peter come to learn, is that for all life's myriad subtleties, sometimes there is no option but to exist only in black and white. It's a lesson Matt Nation's Peter finally learns in a moving flood of tears. And it's a way of life that Wallace's Doris lives to the full. From the way she expresses her hurt at a snide comment only via a look in her eyes as she exits, to the gravitas she injects into to the saccharine ending, there's an ocean of feeling behind her cheery façade.
Patricia Graham's inner conflict feels tangible as she tries to contain the emotional roller coaster welling up inside her. The killer 'app' of Teddys' phrase 'Moral fibre' finally spills over her into a bright lustre of love for a man she barely knew, and so Peters fate was sealed.
Elsewhere, I loved Paul Olding's Italianesque Polish pilot whose stumbling vocabulary tickled the rib cage with gusto. Taylor's production is very good, and mention should go to some fine supporting turns from Bobbie Tan, Andrew Fletcher, Michael Comba, Carenza Ellery and Steve Curtis.
The whole production team should be praised for their efforts in creating such an authentic platform from which Flare Path was launched. The attention to detail was subtle and eye catching from the stage management of Tony Wood, lighting and design operation of Tony White, the sound designs from Paul Olding, lighting and sound operation from Adrian and Ros Cottle, the Set by Northend Productions, Properties Bobbie Tan, production assistance from Sally Collins, Costumes by Chrissy Fryers to the hair by Charlotte Howard.
For me the evening beautifully captured both the sense of danger and its boozy, raucous aftermath. The performances were impeccable. Harriet Pocock looked suitably strained, tense and taut as the agonised Patricia. Matt Nation admirably conveys the sense of exclusion felt by the movie star caught up in wartime action. You could feel the tears welling up as he hesitatingly translates to the Countess (Louise Wallace) whose features light up as she learns how much she was loved by her missing-in-action husband. Rob Dawsons' performance is nothing short of serene despite the emotional turmoil surrounding him and the atmospherics generated in the one to one scenes of each of the participants was frankly electric. You should have been there...
DeafboyOne
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