A
POWERFUL play with a very strong cast is currently wowing the audience at the
Abbey Theatre Studio in St Albans. A
POWERFUL play with a very strong cast is currently wowing the audience at the
Abbey Theatre Studio in St Albans.
Sam Shepard's Simpatico is a play on many levels which examines a range of issues without coming to any tidy conclusions.
So if you like your plays nicely rounded off with a beginning, a middle and an end, Simpatico is not for you.
But if you prefer something more challenging which delves deep into the emotions and why people behave as they do, then it is well worth the trip to see the play performed by the Company of Ten.
Simpatico is basically the story of Carter and Vinnie, former friends who share a shady past in the world of horse breeding. While Carter has gone on to become a wealthy and powerful man, Vinnie's life has disintegrated to the extent that he accepts handouts from his former colleague to buy his silence.
The pivotal roles of Carter and Vinnie are played superbly by Russell Vincent and Stephen Vaughan respectively.
While Russell's Carter switches effortlessly from cool detachment to furious anger, Stephen's Vinnie plays a waiting game, leaving the audience to question who is the real man and who is the doppelganger.
They only appear together in two acts of the seven-act play and, particularly in the finale, the pair stretch their acting skills to the utmost, to the extent that it feels as though the audience is imposing on a private moment.
Dewi Williams is also excellent as Simms, the former local racing commissioner who has been blackmailed by Carter and Vinnie to keep silent about the racetrack scam.
Working as a bloodstock agent in Kentucky years later, his scene with Vinnie's girlfriend Cecilia - a fine performance by Jo Emery - is particularly mesmerising.
Jacqui Golding as Carter's voluptuous wife Rosie makes up an impressive cast.
The Studio is perfect for the play and the triptychal set is cleverly designed and used. Director Tim Hoyle says in his programme notes how bowled over he was by the first Sam Shepard play he saw. There won't be many leaving the Studio after the roller-coaster ride of Simpatico who won't agree with him.
Simpatico runs until Saturday 30 April at the Abbey Theatre Studio and tickets are available from the box office on 01727 857861.
MADELEINE BURTON
© Herts Advertiser, April 2005. Reproduced by permission