Low Down
Set in the Fruitmarket Gallery on Market Street, Tim Crouch’s England is an astoundingly moving account of the situations surrounding one woman’s heart transplant.
‘England’ is a story delivered simply and clearly, with themes that are complex and deeply touching. This is an important piece of theatre, relevant to each and every one of us.
Review
Set in the Fruitmarket Gallery on Market Street, Tim Crouch’s England is an astoundingly moving account of the situations surrounding one woman’s heart transplant.
Tim Crouch and Hannah Ringham enter the gallery like any other pedestrians, chatting to people, looking at the artwork. And then they speak to us, and gradually it transpires that Tim and Hannah are playing the same person: a woman speaking about her boyfriend, about his feelings surrounding her illness. She needs a heart, or she’s going to die. Their delivery is open, honest and human: somehow it seems they’re just speaking to us, that it really is that simple, and in the end, the effect is profound.
We hear about the woman’s boyfriend, his great love of art, his need to make things right, and only through this woman’s account of these things, do we sense her feelings about her situation. The information, although delivered by her, is one step removed – it’s her story told through her account of other people’s feelings.
We move downstairs for a second part, where Tim and Hannah stand in front of us again, less than a foot away. The story has moved on and we’re somewhere else, with the woman and a translator. She has a new heart, and is meeting the wife of the man whose body it once belonged to. And we learn more: how this story has unfolded for the wife, the devastating circumstances in her part of the story, and although she’s not even here, although everything we know we know through a translator, and the woman’s reactions, she becomes vital – the protagonist. And then we hear of a gift the woman has brought for her, to say thank you: a painting.
I am fascinated and inspired by the relationship these performers build and nurture with their audience.
Whilst ‘England’ houses an emotionally intricate story - like any real story - it delivers it so simply and calmly that the words, the faces that speak them, and our own imaginations all blend together to create a feeling of immense poignancy.
‘England’ is a story delivered simply and clearly, with themes that are complex and deeply touching. This is an important piece of theatre, relevant to each and every one of us.
Reviewed by Jade Blue 21st August 2007
Website :
