20 May 2006

Burn by Deborah Gearing

Robert Boulter - Aaron
Alex Tregear - Sal
Andrew Garfield - Birdman (Joey)
Andrea Riseborough - Linda
Joy Richardson - Jan
Claire-Louise Cordwell - Mel
Matti Houghton - Marie
Farzana Dua Elahe - Sita
Matt Smith - Tom
Sid Mitchell - Niall
Naomi Bently - Rachel
Javone Prince - Colin
Richard Dempsey - Matt

Directed by Anna Mackmin
Designed by Jonathan Fensom


Of the three productions I would say I enjoyed this the least. If I had been unlucky with a return ticket I would have gone to one of the evening that only had two plays omitting this one. It was not as tight and well planned. The performances were good, really good but the writing let them down. It reminded me of something Roy Williams might have done but not as good.

This is a good a place as any to remark on the efficiency of the complete set changes. They had 20 minutes in each case to completely change the stage. Admittedly it was all quite simple stuff but Burn was set on a rubbish tip.