At the heart of this play was a well-written and constructed script, but the first half, unfortunately, suffered due to its staging. The set looked wonderful, with sand layered everywhere over old-fashioned office furniture, but again and again we the audience were just watching two actors sitting down and talking.
Admittedly they sat down and talked in different areas of the stage as the scenes progressed, but in dramatic terms, there was precious little action or real engagement.
The opening scene attracted the viewer’s interest with the discovery, by two retired Sloane Rangers in Granada, of Lorca’s skeleton and his shattered spine. However, it did feel there were perhaps one too many Chelsea in-jokes knowingly aimed at a very Chelsea audience.
But the disparate strands of the big and weighty plot, involving not only Lorca’s life but also the politics surrounding Europe and General Franco, may have hung listlessly in lesser hands. De Jongh wove each of his chosen nuances into the play with a succinct skill, and the dialogue felt snappy on the ear.
In the second half of the play the craved-for action suddenly sprang into being, like Athena from Zeus’s temple. Bang, the lights came into play; bang, theatre started happening; bang, we saw people standing and moving and using the stage. It was all fresh and electrifying.
I almost wondered if it’d been a deliberate ploy on the director’s part to have the first half so intensely staid, so as to accentuate the action of the latter half. If it was, it almost worked, if I hadn’t have initially come close to complete sensory deprivation.
Acting-wise there were some beautiful turns to be spoken about in the production. Irishman Damien Hasson provided a passionate Lorca, Matthew Bentley was memorable as his young blonde lover, and John Atterbury gave a touching performance as an old man surfing through the secrets and memories of his life.
Overall there were many elements of enjoyment in this play, and it’s conscientiously recommendable to anyone with an interest in Lorca. If you’re looking for theatre that grabs you and takes you soaring from the off, then you may be underwhelmed.
Photo: Ed Clarke
The Drayton Arms, 153 Old Brompton Road, SW5 0LJ
Playing until Saturday 25th October. 8pm.
www.thedraytonarmstheatre.co.uk
