Monday, May 9, 2011

Flowers from Tunisia ? review

Torch, Milford Haven

In the programme notes, writer Lawrence Allen describes dementia as "a foreign country", and it's this idea that shapes his 2005 drama about a woman slipping into something more than forgetfulness on a journey abroad.

Reah (Christine Pritchard) lives with her son, Keith (Richard Corgan), regaling him with tales from the old days, but not knowing what the date is. These scenes, with her clenched over her handbag and him exasperated, are bittersweet and convincing in every detail. They are also very funny. Reah thinks she's in a holiday home and remarks that it's self-catering. "Of course it's self-catering," Keith thunders, "it's your own bloody house."

From this well-observed focus point, the play extends itself too far in moving the action to a package holiday in Tunisia and concerning itself with a clash of cultures: Keith, a troubled soldier who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, versus Khalid (Naoufal Ousellam), a young flower-seller who ends up engaged to Reah. This works less well, as the tone flounders between comedy and darker issues. Pritchard's transformation here is hugely watchable, though, as she leaves behind the present-day details she can never quite recall, and her newly relaxed face gleams.

Other things hamper: Joana Ferr�o's design, around a giant hospital bedside-style curtain, feels too inert, and nothing is gained by updating the play to include footage of revolutionary protest in Tunisia. Reah's plight and the long-held secret that seeps out are warmly drawn, but the rest only feels like a dream, unevenly sketched out in the retelling.

Rating: 2/5


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/may/08/flowers-from-tunisia-review

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