Fringe ReviewLondon FringeThe Mercy SeatGenre: Drama
Venue: Pleasance Carpenters Mews North Road London N7 9EFLow DownNeil LaBute controversially pits secret lovers Abby and Ben against each other in the context of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. LaBute examines ’the painful, simplistic warfare we often wage on the hearts of those we love’ in a stunning script and premise. Uncanny depiction and portrayel of brutal revelations of the heart ensures LaBute’s examination is akin to a live dissection, purposefully missing the anesthesia. ReviewCommemoration of the 9/11 terrorist attacks prompts a cascade of remembrance: the heroic public protection services are lauded. Harrowing tales of survival are recounted. Fathers who never made it home to read their children a bed time story are mourned. In classic LaBute style, a missing 9/11 patriarch is abominably hiding away with his lover of three years as bleak dust-clouds consume New York City. In the covert apartment setting, however, the dust is only beginning to plume. A deluge of false pretences and a fable presented as love settles around the sordid relationship in question.
Adulterer Ben, in the wake of tragedy, nefariously assesses his ‘meal ticket’ to abscond out of state with long-term mistress Abby, a magnificent Janine Ulfane. Sean O’Neil precisely pinpoints LaButes interpretation of a chauvinistic American male as he brutishly responds to the vulnerable displays of Abby. Ulfane bemoans Abby’s frustrated admissions that she is malnourished of affection and appreciation. O’Neil’s choice to manifest his abandonment of emotional responsibility with cumbersome eye-lids creates an integral character trait. Similarly, Ulfane terrifically maneuvers subtle flits of the eyes, expressing multifarious elements of her disdain. She is morally outraged that Ben would see opportunity in crisis, whilst containing her ravenous desire to agree.
As the relationship is elucidated, Uflane and O’Neil are intimate on stage and electrically alter the decisive power plays between the couple. Physically and facially, they map out a convoluted relationship. Witnessing their plights and grievances uncomfortably strikes resemblance to any dysfunctional human relationship. Altercating over irksome comments and idiosyncratic recreations is a frightful mirror of realism.
It is a rarity for men in theatre to be the complex specimen. Ben’s gauche inner-psyche uncoils masterfully under the skill playwright and O’Neil alike. Admittance of brashly the selfish inner desires to evade blame for his misdeeds and attempts to manipulate others to meet his immediate wants is obnoxious and risible. As The Mercy Seat dismantles the expectations of usually shallow male characters, we almost find sympathy due to Ben’s starkly accurately human portrayal. This is no easy feat.
Abby, by contrast, unreels in her revelations. Delicate mannerisms and fleeting grimaces excellently launches latent self-disgust into aching prevalent anxieties. Her strengths are nimbly conveyed as transparent. Uflane pinpoints the sardonic writing of Abby, lacing lines with a potent hint of her self-assessed disparaging actions. Her disgust at submitting to oral sex and three years of sex without eye contact lurches forward in an empathetic horror. In these moments of horror (such as Abby sharing that during sex she fantasises being violated by her lover’s wife) a change of lighting adds an environment of Armageddon to proceedings. Adding to the portent atmosphere is the entire apartment set cloaked in an opaque white covering. A distant soundtrack of the New York City night equally creates an eerie reminder of which dark day these scenes are unfolding.
The dust-cover is a reminder of the chaos ensuing in terrorist-stricken outside world. LaBute is famed for dark and bold premises. Creating a metaphor between a relationship ravaged by truth with the tumbling towers is as an idea as audacious, as it is a brilliantly conceived; catastrophe is displayed as a personal affliction. America will carry on, Ben asserts, yet their relationship is almost beyond salvaging.
Staging The Mercy Seat during the imminent 9/11 anniversary is an almost unnecessary move to create a finite production of calamity and devastation. O’Neil and Ulfane engage extraordinarily with the script and with each other. Astonishing direction from Rob Watt and equally astounding technical staging creates an incredible experience. Undeniably callous, the timely revisit to LaBute’s classic is phenomenal success from script, production and performance.
Reviewed by Stefan Nicolaou 01/09/2011 Website :http://www.craigsound.tumblr.com http://www.glowboxproduction.co.uk
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