PLAYWRIGHT Simon Stephens has had more plays produced at the Royal Exchange than any other living UK playwright.
Blindsided, the fourth, set like the others in his home town of Stockport, opens with Julie Hesmondhalgh, fresh from her dramatic and moving departure from Coronation Street, in a key role. A Stockport-born writer and a popular Corrie actor creates interest, and the auditorium is full, even on the usually flat night after Press Night.
The writer may have intended to link the political with the personal, but very few opportunities are taken to examine this.
The story starts in 1979 and moves to 1997, not to provide a numerical trick, but to set the story in years of key change in Britain’s perception of itself: we elected Maggie’s party to power in 79 and Blair’s in 97. They seem like different worlds, even with hindsight.
Blindsided focuses on standard relationships: mothers and daughters, grandmothers, the family friend, boyfriend and girlfriend, but the individuals are all damaged in some way, and their relationships, governed by concern for self, jar and fracture, eventually with horrendous consequences.
Cathy, a teenage mother studying for one ‘A’ level in History, meets, falls for and plans to marry John Connolly. His betrayal of their relationship prompts a horrendous retribution from Cathy. Eighteen years later Connolly’s son learns the truth and seeks out Cathy and there are glimpses of redemption, even forgiveness?
Designer Anna Fleischle’s set is stark, with the concrete and girders of a grim estate. Sarah Frankcom’s direction opens with a cracking pace suiting the initial sharp dialogue as two young people test the water. Later the still, rigid arms stance of the actors reflects their inability to share, but is puzzlingly unnatural at times. It requires some serious acting skills.
The acting is the main strength
And it is the acting which is the main strength of the production. Julie Hesmondhalgh is stronger in her final role as 97 Cathy conveying a warmth and an empathy that had been intentionally absent from both 79 Cathy, played by Katie West, and her 79 mother, Hesmondhalgh again.
That the change is left unexplained is one of the problems of the play. Katie West is superb, even with her arms so often glued to her sides. I’m not a fan of the arm gesture school of acting, but this stillness is unsettling. Perhaps that’s the point.
The male characters are well-portrayed by Jack Deam and Andrew Sheridan. They’re written to be more easily understood, though both are a little enigmatic. Not in a good way. Rebecca Callard, in her fourth appearance at the Exchange, is superb, as we’ve come to expect.
There are strengths in this production, weaknesses too.
Direction, set, sound and lighting all reinforce the disconnected and jarring aspects of these individuals’ lives. Cathy and John’s sex scene, performed with the actors physically apart, reinforces the insularity of the characters, but is overlong and over-voyeuristic.
Cathy’s passion for history is believable, and hints at deeper questions of how our past determines our present and future. The purification scene is mesmeric but not convincing without strong religious belief, and even then must be a stretch. A belief in the power of hope and the possibility of redemption and forgiveness is a strong undercurrent in our society, but it’s usually at the end of a thorough process of self-examination, and we’re given no real insight into this.
The writer may have intended to link the political with the personal, but very few opportunities are taken to examine this. Rather a few political mantras are uttered by assorted characters and then disappear, without debate or consequence.
Stephens is regarded as a writer for whom place is crucial, but I don’t recognise these characters as particularly Stockport, Manchester or northern characters. The character traits and most of their actions are present everywhere; the crucial action is extreme, rare, and equally not location dependent.
The fine performances rather than the uneven writing make this a play worth seeing.
Blindsided is at The Royal Exchange until Saturday 15 February 2014
If you’d like a little light shed on the ideas behind the production the theatre is running three different events, listed below, which might help.
A pre-show, talk-based introduction to the play and production. Join members of the creative team as they discuss and demonstrate the process of bringing the production to the stage. Tuesday 4 February, 10am-noon.
After-show discussion with writer Simon Stephens and director Sarah Frankcom: Thursday 13 February after 7.30pm performance.
Call the box office on 0161 833 9833
Pictures here by Kevin Cummins.
Blindsided
