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Matilda
Liar!
At
the Burton Taylor 'til Sat 6th
Imagine you're at home, all your relatives around you,
and you have to be sincere. Anyone asks what you were up to last night,
where your money really goes or what you really think of Great Aunt
Mildred's home cooking you are compelled to tell the truth, the whole
truth and nothing but the truth. Face it - who can genuinely say,
with no hint of irony, that there is not something or someone in their
family that irritates them senseless, or that they really are prepared
to disclose every detail of their private life to their grandparents?
Yet it is exactly this nightmare that faces the reluctant eponymous
heroine in Matilda Liar! Her family are particularly horrendous, everything
based on stories, pie-crust promises and acceptance of their lot.
None of them ever leave the house. Father Frank (Spencer?) fills his
children's heads with fairy stories of kings, damsels and valiant
knights in armour, but has all the panaché of an airline salad. Mother
is the epitome of the repressed housewife, discontented with the boredom
and sacrifice of family life but honour bound not to do anything about
it. Michael mopes around in pyjamas, staring into his fishtank. Fiona
has made the break as a successful career woman, but still keeps up
the contented home-maker façade even though she can't abide her own
children. Matilda, youngest of the happy clan, hides away reading
childish books and fabricating a better existence.
Thing is, in their own twisted way, they all love each other. So when
Matilda accidentally takes a truth pill before a family party she
is stuck in an impossible situation - if she speaks to them honestly
she will destroy the framework of the whole family, but she is incapable
of doing anything else. Unlike so many other plays based around family
life, Matilda Liar! never takes the easy way out, instead exploring
all issues to their (il)logical conclusions. As with all families
there are peaks and troughs - comedy one minute, cutting dialogue
the next - but there are also moments of extreme surrealism.
The set is black and white with a chess board floor and a large staircase,
allowing the drama to take place in two places at once and giving
Matilda her own private space in which to conduct her piercing, fantastical
monologues. An original score (from Theo Holloway) oscillates between
playful and sinister and maintains an ethereal quality.
Basically, Matilda Liar is a fantastic play. Call it (very) black
comedy, social comment or suburban drama, it succeeds in satisfying
on multiple levels, and this innovative production certainly does
it justice. Extremely impressive.
Pam Green
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