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Black Crown Lullabies Tea House Gallery Thurs 2 March Duncan Graham's trilogy of short plays (shown in two sessions) is a warm weave of themes of love, death and property encased in biblical allusion. The first part, 'One Long Night In The Land Of Nod', is the most substantial and concerns the relationship between two brothers, one a stagnating isolated farm dweller named Aaron (Patrick Graham) and the other an urbanite named Kain (William Allert). Their bond is reminiscent of that between each of the two generations of Trasks in Steinbeck's 'East Of Eden', which, of course, was an amplified expression of the relationship between Cain and Abel in the biblical story, and the same sense of mystical universalness inhabiting these can be discerned in '...Nod'. The very cosy nature of the gallery theatre is somewhat deceitful because, as the piece develops the relatively narrow duct that is the stage seems to become a scope through which the audience can perceive an almost metaphysical dimension of reality. The acutely fluctuating flow of the brothers' beautiful and terrifying relationship is excellently realised and especially engaging. The remaining two parts, 'Eve's Memory' and 'The Lullaby', are looser and less forceful, but for audiences already warmed by the first part this is of little concern and, indeed, they serve very well to relieve some of the tension manufactured in the first. 'Eve's...' is an amiable piece, involving Eve (Sarah Hunt) and her lover (Graham) attempting to articulate the history of their relationship from what seem vacuous but creative memory-faculties. '...Lullaby' is also very affable, with a lone muse, played by the consistently excellent Patrick Graham, providing a reflection on isolation and death.  |
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