at The Old Hairdressers
Closer, a play concerning honesty, co-dependency, trust,
love as object-obsession and other heady themes, holds some considerable acumen
having won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and New York Drama
Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play, as well as being nominated for a
Tony after its London premiere in 1997.
This often comedic romantic drama, made into a film
featuring Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Clive Owen and Julia Roberts in 2004,
follows the emotional ups and downs of four individuals, each in their own way
psychologically dubious, as they fall in and out of each other’s arms, trading
partners for love and lust. Dan is cold, Alice is wayward, Anna can’t follow
her best interests, and Larry claims the moral high ground while acting out
unscrupulous sexual fantasies and taking opportunities in opposition to his
values.
Happenstance and sometimes the most unlikely of coincidences
brings them together – in one hilarious scene, Dan tricks Larry into turning up
for a date after posing as a cyber slut named Anna in an internet chat room,
only for Larry to meet the real Anna and begin a romantic relationship with
her, much to Dan’s Chagrin. Alice and Larry, the more co-dependents in love,
are betrayed. Arguments ensue over who deserves whom and finally happy endings
are lost over the desire for candour.
Sometimes these four
carry on a little as though there are only three other people in the rest of
the universe, but the writing is consistently high standing - with tight
plotting, interesting structure, and occasional flashes of psychological
excellence such as the unconscious tie between Larry’s slavish co-dependency in
love as a flipside to his sexual violence: he devours his partner in conquest
of his slavery.
The constructive use of a minimal set helps enhance the
drama and naturalistic feel. The merging
of two scenes into one stage is ubiquitously well achieved: when one character
walks into another couple’s scene only to steal one of them into a flashback of
a previous scenario the effect is immersive.
Broken Bird is a company that shows immense competence both
in acting and execution, although sometimes a closer reading of the script could
yield yet deeper results. For example, Larry makes several references to his
working class heritage but his performance does not particularly exploit this as
a character point, likewise while Dan’s portrayal is completely consistent
internally, he does not seem to exude the cool, detached sexuality wanting of a
man whom women involuntarily fall in love with, despite themselves. Still, the
company, formed earlier this year by young actors, has the potential to raise
the stakes for independent theatre in Glasgow, they emanate professionalism.
