Tuesday 26th – Saturday 30th January; 7.30pm

Burton Taylor

“Directors Richard O’Brien and Robert Williams steer…the audience fearlessly through a play which systematically refuses to explain itself, and they never leave its central theme in any doubt.” David Ralf ★★★★★

“Highly reminiscent of George Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984, we are told in urgent and hushed voices how animals and countries alike have become embroiled in a world of rapidly switching alliances.” Camilla Turner ★★★★★

Far Away ★★★★★

Review by David Ralf

In the ten years since Caryl Churchill’s play, ‘Far Away’ was written, how little has changed. War is on the doorstep, and this play’s focus is insistently concentrated on the impossibility of anyone seeing clearly. This week’s production at the Burton Taylor is brilliantly acted, sensitively directed, and amusing where it needs to be, but it is always pointing to the danger just offstage.

The play follows Joan (Cassie Barraclough), a young girl who first experiences the play’s mysterious and unexplained war late at night as she converses with her aunt about ‘the people in the lorry’ – refugees? traitors? – that her uncle is putting in his shed. Her aunt, Harper (Annie James) eventually convinces her that the violence she has seen is justified, and we are next presented with an adult Joan at her first job, a professional hat-maker, where she works alongside Todd (Jonnie McAloon), an old hand, who flirts with her, and tells her of his fears about corruption. Finally we move to some kind of safe-house, where Todd and Harper argue about the war in which ‘everything has been recruited’ – the cats, the crocodiles, the children under five and the deer – while they wait for Joan to escape to them ‘for just one day’.

Cassie Barraclough is a fantastic Joan, presenting both terrified child and naïve young woman with dexterity, committing fully to both roles, which have been divided between actors in previous productions. Jonnie McAloon also deftly changes from flirtatious milliner to hardened freedom fighter believably and engagingly. Directors Richard O’Brien and Robert Williams steer her and the audience fearlessly through a play which systematically refuses to explain itself, and they never leave its central theme in any doubt. Their light touch creates just the right tone, especially in the central hat-making scenes, where we are stunned to realise Joan and Todd begin to care more about each other and about the their hats than they do about the trials and executions going on around them. Some important lines lost a little punch due to broad washes of tone throughout scenes, but the production never lost its way.

The design of the show was excellent, and a pleasant change from the Burton Taylor stock – from a harsh domestic light fixture that was reminiscent of an interrogation room to flashing red warning lights and the light of a single candle for the final scene.

The directors also elegantly solve the problem of The Parade – a string of up to a hundred prisoners wearing the absurd hats that the young couple spend their time making – with video footage on a little television which was also used well in the first scene. It is only unfortunate that because of the positioning of the television on the traverse stage, which was otherwise well used, up to half the audience had no chance of seeing the footage – a shame, because it was well executed, and created a terrifying atmosphere for those of us lucky enough to see it.

Any misgivings I had about individual moments were swept aside by the focus and drive of the production – and at only 40 minutes running time, it hits home quickly and leaves adequate food for thought to make you seriously question ever taking sides again.

Far Away ★★★★★

Review by Camilla Turner

Far Away” seems to be a departure from Caryl Churchill’s defining subject matters of gender or sexuality, and seems far more political than Churchill’s other works. The overriding theme seems to be the young girl’s journey from innocence to experience; from naively accepting her aunt’s explanation about the screaming children in the shed, to becoming caught up in a world where elements, countries and animals conspire against each other in a war of fleeting alliances.

In the opening scene, by far the best executed in terms of dramatic engagement, we see a young girl’s anguish and horror as she tells her aunt of the ominous scene she witnessed the previous night, involving screaming children, a shed in the garden, and blood on the ground. The ominous aunt is played by Annie James, who effectively conjures a sinister atmosphere of foreboding. This scene has a somewhat Dickensian air to it, which later seems somewhat out of place, given that the next scene is of a much more contemporary nature.

Next, the girl is older, making hats for a carnival, coyly brushing away the advances of her male colleague. The two discuss their working conditions, introducing the political theme, which becomes far more overt in the final scene. Here, the audience witnesses the breakdown of the social and political environment, conveyed through allegorical language. Highly reminiscent of George Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984, we are told in urgent and hushed voices how animals and countries alike have become embroiled in a world of rapidly switching alliances. The attempt to convey the horrors of an all encompassing battlefield, which includes the forces of nature such as light and dark, as well as alligators, cats and the French, seem somewhat tepid, and the audience is left rather more confused than engaged.

The use of technology in this production is interesting, with a television on stage which intermittently becomes part of the play. Stage lighting is used effectively, particularly in the first and final scenes, where candlelight serves as an apt alternative. Though acted well, particularly Annie James’ characterisation of the terrible aunt, it seems that the main shortcoming of this production lies in the play itself, which appears to lack both plot and substance. Engaging at times, Far Away ends rather abruptly after just forty minutes, leaving the audience somewhat perplexed.