Theatre Review
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Brimstone and Treacle Banned by the BBC, Dennis Potter's play has the potential to chill an audience to the core with its dark themes of mistrust, rape, fascism, embezzlement, disability and redemption. The script is so colourful as to be entertaining as a study in human emotions even off the stage, but in the hands of an experienced cast, Brimstone and Treacle could have been breathtaking. I was hopeful that the young Cuppers graduates could do justice to the passionate prose, but sadly, the power of Potter's imagery and dark themes was lost by the unrealistic portrayal of the two parent-figures, and a failure on the part of the director to fully exploit the tension between the paralysed Patty and her demonic tormentor. Patty Bates, played by the extremely talented Lucy Foster, begins the opening scene lying on a low bed, trapped in her internal suffering, having been paralysed and left unable to speak in an accident two years earlier. The reclusive Mr. and Mrs. Bates go about their daily life in a gloom of grief, surviving only to survive from one day to the next. Enter the charismatic Martin, seemingly an answer to Mrs. Bates's domestic entrapment, and her only link to her daughter's life prior to her accident. The perfect blue-eyed boy, Martin is welcomed by "Mumsie" as the answer to her prayers, though receives much more of a suspicious welcome from her flustered husband. As the play progresses, Leander Deany's Martin shows us his true colours, and the demonic nature of his true character is climaxed in the on-screen blackout, leaving only Patty's screams to signify the terror of her rape. Had Deany's portrayal been more focussed and deliberate, and had the action and torment exploited the haunting stillness in the BT, the effect could have been dramatic. But the unrealistic and stilted flitting between Deany's nervous "nice-boy", and his more intense tormentor leaves the audience unconvinced. One could say he was in no means helped by the dire acting of Emily Wiffson as the pitiable Mrs. Bates. Such an unsympathetic caricature would not have been misplaced in a skit, but in this intense drama, the effect was to undermine the credibility of the play. It was sad to watch such an outstanding script squandered, but nevertheless, it is worth going to see Brimstone and Treacle if Dennis Potter's plays have so far alluded you. Whilst this performance may not stick in the memory, Potter's dark imagery may yet haunt you. Sherree Halliwell 24/01/01 |