Dundee Rep
Four stars
If Alan Ayckbourn had written his 1985 study of one woman's psychological unravelling today, chances are that his heroine, Susan, would be so numbed by Prozac that her descent into fantasy would have been blotted out by the end of the first act. As it is, Marilyn Imrie's lush-looking revival for Dundee Rep's Ensemble company and Birmingham Rep reveals Ayckbourn as a far darker chronicler of the very English garden he occupies than he is often given credit for.
Opening with composer Pippa Murphy's anxious-voiced chorale, we're ushered into Susan's idyll, a world occupied by a white-suited husband, a beautiful and talented daughter and a brother who would defend her to the death. Such endlessly sun-drenched perfection is upended, alas, by the reined-in torpor of something both more mundane and a whole lot more complicated. When it becomes increasingly hard for Susan to tell which world she belongs in, she takes a mental leap too far.
Flanked by trees and with a giant cube hanging down onto the garden, Imrie's production heightens Ayckbourn's deadly exchanges to breaking point, provoking at least two gasps of recognition from the audience on Friday's opening night. At the show's centre is a vigorously no holds barred performance from Meg Fraser as Susan, with some strong support from an impressive cast.
In its melding of fantasy and reality, Ayckbourn's play is on a par with Dennis Potter's TV drama, The Singing Detective, which appeared in 1986, while it also pre-dates Anthony Neilson's The Wonderful World of Dissocia. In Susan, however, Ayckbourn has personified an entire generation of women, screaming inside, destined never to be heard.
The Herald, May 26th 2014
ends
Four stars
If Alan Ayckbourn had written his 1985 study of one woman's psychological unravelling today, chances are that his heroine, Susan, would be so numbed by Prozac that her descent into fantasy would have been blotted out by the end of the first act. As it is, Marilyn Imrie's lush-looking revival for Dundee Rep's Ensemble company and Birmingham Rep reveals Ayckbourn as a far darker chronicler of the very English garden he occupies than he is often given credit for.
Opening with composer Pippa Murphy's anxious-voiced chorale, we're ushered into Susan's idyll, a world occupied by a white-suited husband, a beautiful and talented daughter and a brother who would defend her to the death. Such endlessly sun-drenched perfection is upended, alas, by the reined-in torpor of something both more mundane and a whole lot more complicated. When it becomes increasingly hard for Susan to tell which world she belongs in, she takes a mental leap too far.
Flanked by trees and with a giant cube hanging down onto the garden, Imrie's production heightens Ayckbourn's deadly exchanges to breaking point, provoking at least two gasps of recognition from the audience on Friday's opening night. At the show's centre is a vigorously no holds barred performance from Meg Fraser as Susan, with some strong support from an impressive cast.
In its melding of fantasy and reality, Ayckbourn's play is on a par with Dennis Potter's TV drama, The Singing Detective, which appeared in 1986, while it also pre-dates Anthony Neilson's The Wonderful World of Dissocia. In Susan, however, Ayckbourn has personified an entire generation of women, screaming inside, destined never to be heard.
The Herald, May 26th 2014
ends
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