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By
Simon Tavener
Firstly,
this is the must-see play of the week - it is intelligent, sensitive,
moving and extremely well acted. Need I say more? I probably ought.
Kiss
of the Spiderwoman started life as an incredible book and has been
presented in many forms - both on screen and on stage. This adaptation
focuses the audiences attention very directly on the delicately
shifting relationship between Molina (a gay window dresser) and
Valentin (a political dissident). It takes enormous skill and effort
on the part of the actors to tackle a two-handed play - Tai Shan
Ling and Harry Lloyd were both very much on top of their form for
the entire evening.
Tai
Shan Ling captured the precise nature of Molina. He had a very controlled
physicality that never descended into camp stereotype. There was
a wry smile to many of his lines - revelling in the character yet
still repulsed by the situation he was forced to confront. He was
sensitive in all he did on stage - creating a living, breathing
man who found refuge in a fantasy world. Once he allowed his fantasy
to merge with his reality, he found true release - a truly touching
performance.
Harry
Lloyd was intense, involving and passionate in his portrayal. My
reading of the character of Valentin is more of a fighter, more
of the street. Lloyd gave a more polished view of the person - this
worked very much within the production. One could see the pain on
his face and the slow realisation that he, too, could find an escape
route through tackling the boundary between idealism and reality.
Both
actors were presented in a simple yet effective set - scaffolding
and beds were all that was needed to create the claustrophic cell.
The lighting blended the natural with the theatrical in exactly
the right balance.
This
is the sort of drama to which all students (and a number of professionals)
should aspire. I applaud them for their hard work and obvious talent
- clearly they have a future.
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