Reviews: Dolls, and Naked Neighbour

One of the challenges presented by Tramway for any production is the great weight of history that resides in its walls. Some performances ignore the nature of the space, attempting to force the venue to submit to the transitory agenda, but only the most powerful events can pull this off. More interestingly, especially for local companies, is the effort to incorporate the peculiarities of Tramway into the production, to allow its contours to work its magic on the audience. Both Naked Neighbour and Dolls deserve respect for their willingness to explore their respective venues.

Naked Neighbour was a hit on the Fringe, and it is not typical Tramway fare. Above all, it is quirky and intimate, has a happy ending and a light sense of humour. In Tramway 4 - the smaller, versatile theatre, it uses the length of the room to imagine a house of many stories- with an escape route to the afterlife cleverly positioned at the top. The premise - man with a broken heart comes to terms with his loss through the arrival of a gumshoe angle - is slight. Yet an intriguing script, changes of character and the charm of the piece contribute to a solid success.

Rosalind Sydney brings a sweetness to her role as the lover and an archetypal, if slightly self-conscious, terseness as the angel. While Nick Underwood’s songs aren’t always show-stoppers, they suggest the vulnerability and awkwardness of Ben Lewis’ romantic male lead. Apart from a disturbing sub-plot involving a possible dead body in the attic, Naked Neighbour is upbeat and redemptive, silly in a good sense and heart-warmingly sentimental. The darkness of T4 does lend it a more sinister overtone, but Underwood’s direction is brisk and gentle.

Dolls is a National Theatre of Scotland production that inhabited T1. Given that Tam Dean Burn is in the cast, David Paul Jones created the music and it was adapted from Kitano’s ravishing film, it ought to have been able to take on the space and win. However, the awkward transitions from Japanese original to Scottish vernacular left the script ungrounded, and despite a series of eloquent moments, it lacked cohesion and pace.

Three tangentially related stories of love and loss take up three areas of T1. A mixture of dance, drama and, when Zoey van Goey hit their groove, a rock gig, Dolls did look like a classic Tramway show. The wide space is used. There is a fine disregard for linear narrative. The ending is bitter-sweet. The Peter Brook wall, the beautiful backdrop that evokes some ancient ruin, makes a featured appearance.

Yet none of the stories fully engage preferring to wistfully suggest rather than provoke. Even TDB couldn’t get achieve the necessary intimacy required by such a gentle tale, and the dance sequences of a couple bound by a red rope never progress beyond some simple statements of interdependence. Scenes such as the quiet meeting of star and fan are moving, and the final conversation between the gangster and her abandoned lover captures the painful gap between longing and requited love. These fragments did open up theatrical possibilities and the musical score could stand alone: Dolls felt like a polished work in progress, where certain key questions - such as the fundamental difference between film and stage, Japan and Scotland, hadn’t yet been answered.

But the National Theatre is still exploring, thank God, and work like this implies that they are sensitive to Tramway’s particular traditions. A stronger script and a taut direction could see Dolls open up interesting paths.