SITTING
in the audience at the Abbey Theatre Studio watching Honour,
the latest production by the Company of Ten, felt almost like eavesdropping
on someone else's private life. The cast
SITTING
in the audience at the Abbey Theatre Studio watching Honour,
the latest production by the Company of Ten, felt almost like eavesdropping
on someone else's private life.
That is probably not too surprising because Honour is a play which deals primarily with the dissolution of a long-standing marriage because of the intervention of a third party.
And it is credit to director Rosemary Goodman and her excellent quartet of performers that there was something almost slightly uncomfortable about watching four people's lives metamorphose in front of you.
That feeling of eavesdropping in no way deflects from an excellent production of the play by Australian dramatist Joanna Murray-Smith.
Set in the round in the confines of the Studio, it looks at the breakdown in the 32-year marriage of Honor and George, both in their early sixties.
It does not always make comfortable viewing - I defy anyone in the audience not to relate to at least some aspects of it - but it is totally compelling, beautifully written and remarkably perceptive.
The only slight drawback is that none of the characters are particularly likeable. George and Honor are smug in their married state, his young lover Claudia is intellectual and articulate but ultimately uncaring of the damage she is causing and their daughter Sophie hits out at her mother - the real victim of the triangle - in her grief.
That does not detract from the quality of the performances, all of which are first rate. Company of Ten veteran Terry Prince is totally believable as the lovestruck George who is prepared to throw away the woman who has been his soulmate for so many years for the passion he craves so late in life.
Caroline Fantozzi's Claudia, the young journalist whom he falls for while she is interviewing him, is cunning and clever but ultimately, whether or not she is conscious of it, is using him for her own advantage.
And Gemma Hill is passionate in her grief at the breakdown of what has always been a constant in her life - her parents' marriage.
But it is Lesley Gordon as Honor who steals the show with her combination of anger and dignity and ultimate rebirth in the role she has reluctantly been pushed into.
Honour - the title is clearly a play on words - is a provocative and thought-provoking play which taps perfectly into the ups and downs of modern life.
It runs in the Studio until 22 October, and tickets are available from the box office on 01727 857861.
MADELEINE BURTON
© Herts Advertiser, October 2005. Reproduced by permission