August by David Humphries
August by David Humphries |
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The Playroom, 13th - 17th November 2000
The Marlowe Society present August by David Humphries, the winner of the 2000 Marlowe/RSC Other Prize.
"From Dostoevsky to Sunset Beach, the troubled priest is always a compelling figure. August tries to harness the iconography of the priest with a guilty secret, as its central character Thomas August is tormented by memories of the murders he committed in the past. The minimalist set design and excellent costumes enhance this theme of religious guilt, creating a real American Gothic air. This sets the scene for a potentaially powerful exploration of sin, guilt, and religious imagery.
The direction is unfailingly excellent, with the actors moving slickly around the stage to heighten what drama the script provides, especially in the opening murder scene, which conveys a genuine sense of brutality." Varsity review 16/11/00
"For those of you who are looking for an evening of light entertainment, go to see The Blues Brothers. If you’d rather see a piece of very fine new drama and feel like a challenge, August is the play for you. David Humphries’ beautifully dark words, heightened by Tom Perrin’s superb direction have already impressed the judges of the R S C Other Award and the Marlowe Society Prize. The Playroom is a fittingly claustrophobic venue for the piece as the audience watch the characters literally face to face.
The play opens with murder, the second scene is filled with contagious and ominous agitation, the third demonic possession, fourth exorcism... but it would be reductive and admittedly difficult to retell the plot of August. What matters are the con- frontations at work: Good versus Evil, black versus white, shadow versus light, a hackneyed theme is here rein- vented. The extremes become strangely interchangeable as the scarlet mask of the devil and the white mask of divine grace are exchanged between the protagonists; so when August tells the white-faced Visitor (a fantastic, playful performance by Nick O’Donovan) to go to Hell, the latter can say that he’s just been there. Do the masks have a force of their own? Is man free to assume and discard them? Which is the more powerful? Thomas August begrudgingly accepts the mask of virtue as the play ends, but does this mean that Good has defeated Evil? The questions are left open and the audience confused.
The enigmatic nature of the piece, however, is unpretentious and deliberates It refuses to cast definitive judgements and in so doing excites rather than loses our interest. This is not only thanks to an extremely intelligent script, as the perfect casting and controlled characterisation fix our attention throughout. Dan McSherry is imposing and ambiguous as Thomas August and Cressida Drew makes a wonderfully sinister and playful devil. The clockwork movements and caricatured appearance of the Fitzgerald household are suitably unreal and eerie and yet, as the play reaches its dramatic crescendo, the characters have become more sympa- thetic and their plight is poignant. For example, the oafish Mr Fitzgerald makes an eloquent and touching speech to his wife on the relations between light and shadow, clearly emblematic of the interdependence and inevitability of Good and Evil. The costumes and set are simple, thoughtful and stylised the walls of the Playroom sloping forwards, effectively heightening the air of claustrophobia and oddity. Only the music was rather clumsily switched on and off between scenes and seemed out of keeping with an otherwise flawless piece.
August may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but to miss this would be too miss this term’s, if not this year’s, most intriguing play.
The Cambridge Student 16/11/01
