Almeida Theatre, London
****
Plays about
writers, bio-plays, tend to stray from balanced pieces of drama into opulent
devices of worship very quickly. There’s certain romanticism in using the same
form, the same pen as one’s hero might have used to extol their glorious life. The Dark Earth and the Light Sky proves
to be a thoroughly interesting piece, precisely because it sidesteps any sickly
bio-play trap. Nick Dear has produced an engaging
piece about the poet Edward Thomas, whose work spanned the years surrounding
World War One, in which Thomas fought and died.
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| Photo: Nobby Clark |
Dear and
Richard Eyre, whose direction of what could have been a very boring and insular
subject, have succeeded in producing a play which matches the gilded beauty of
Thomas’ poetry. Thomas’ social incompatibility and depression are made no
secret of, instead barbing the play with moments of delicious awkwardness
between Pip Carter’s Thomas and his wife Hattie Morahan’s Helen. Dear and Eyre
treat all things page-bound and literary as the heroic driving force however;
Patriotic swells, twinkling starlight and passionate speeches are made,
continuously declaring the importance, the nobility but more importantly
sacrifice in a poet’s life. Helen, the children, Thomas’ other life, his life
away from ‘‘willows, willow-herb, and grass’’ is shunned
away, further complicating Thomas’ intriguing personality and presenting our
hero, the man whose life we’ve come to see as well, a bit of a b***ard.
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| Photo: Nobby Clark |
Shaun Dooley’s Robert Frost provides us with Thomas’ mentor,
an American figure; more in touch with his rationality, Frost somehow seems
less heroic than Thomas. Our hero’s return from enlisting in the Royal Garrison
Artillery elicits a heart wrenching reaction from his wife. A woman torn apart
by a husband who loves then hates, stays then walks produces a most palpable
force in Helen. Morahan’s performance gives the show an anchor and moral
propellant. Without Morahan’s gossipy narration and soliloquizing, Thomas
becomes little more than a selfish romantic struggling for a cause. But Dear,
by building the play around Helen’s more conventional romantic notions of life
in Clapham Common, just after marriage, and her trials in keeping hold of this and Edward, displays both the glory and
the mess in a poet’s life.
Dear’s play leaves us, having presented both the
personal and public images of Thomas, to make up our own minds. From his
cowardice before a gamekeeper and his prickly English bouts of anti-social
behaviour, to his loving but rare affections for Helen, Pip Carter plays Thomas
with an endearing indifference. The quarrels with his father, Ifan Huw Dafydd
are amusingly dark, and perhaps say more about Thomas’ depression than any
other moment. Dooley and Pandora Colin as Thomas’ literary confidants Frost and
Eleanor Farjeon are both superb. However, Hattie Morahan’s character Helen not
only carries the action, constantly farming or washing or lifting or caring or
loving, but so does the actress. Morahan’s emotional depth electrifies the play
with a beating heart necessary to tell the tale of one of England’s finest
poets.
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| Photo: Nobby Clark |
This production runs until 12 January 2013.
For more information: http://www.almeida.co.uk/event/darkearth
@AlmeidaTheatre
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