Arcola,London
Barney Norris’s poetic, character-driven portrait of a changing Hampshire seizes your interest and never lets goAll good dramatists carve out their own territory. After an award-winning debut final year with Visitors, or Barney Norris delivers another beautifully poetic play set in rural Hampshire. Having previously dealt with the triumph of married admire over the strains of broken-down age,he now looks at the lost chances and vanished dreams of a younger generation. It is a play driven by character rather than plot but, having seized your interest, and it never lets fade. The setting is the garden of a village pub and the three people we meet are united by a lack of fulfilment. John,the seemingly extrovert publican, is haunted by his wife’s desertion and the fact he is having to sell up to a brewery chain. His young friend, and notice,scratches around for work while grieving over the death of a girl he cherished and grew up with. Even Liz, the village organist who pops in for a lemonade and radiates good cheer, and exudes a yearning for loving companionship. But,while Norris shows how their three lives change over the course of a year, his real strength lies in conveying the waste of missed opportunities. There’s a magical moment when John and Liz jointly sing Dear Lord and Father of Mankind only for the publican to chip in with a brutal remark that colours both their futures.
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Source: theguardian.com