Plasticine
The young cast do remarkably well with their material, but awkward direction too often negates their abilities
| 15 Feb 2006
Plasticine
(RSAMD Drama)
Perhaps it is the country's complex and often terrible history, or the long, frigid winters; for whatever reason there is something innately depressing about Russian drama, which is inevitably filled with despair, monotony and death with an optional side of poverty. The combination used to work splendidly – Chekhov, Tolstoy and Gogol are legendary and their work was breathtaking. But add 'modern' into the mix and it seems to go a bit pear-shaped. This nightmarish play, written by the hotly touted 25-year-old Vassily Sigarev, has everything it should – a poor, badly educated protagonist facing a rigid class hierarchy; sexual cruelty, confusion and dysfunction; suicide; hopelessness – but it nevertheless misses the mark. Blame the dark humour, which is too sporadic to be funny; or the excessive narration, which is poetic enough to work well for a novel but is out of place in a play. The young cast do remarkably well with their material, but awkward direction too often negates their abilities. They deserve better than this. [Julie Balazs]
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Jan 18 and 20, £4/£2
(RSAMD Drama)
Perhaps it is the country's complex and often terrible history, or the long, frigid winters; for whatever reason there is something innately depressing about Russian drama, which is inevitably filled with despair, monotony and death with an optional side of poverty. The combination used to work splendidly – Chekhov, Tolstoy and Gogol are legendary and their work was breathtaking. But add 'modern' into the mix and it seems to go a bit pear-shaped. This nightmarish play, written by the hotly touted 25-year-old Vassily Sigarev, has everything it should – a poor, badly educated protagonist facing a rigid class hierarchy; sexual cruelty, confusion and dysfunction; suicide; hopelessness – but it nevertheless misses the mark. Blame the dark humour, which is too sporadic to be funny; or the excessive narration, which is poetic enough to work well for a novel but is out of place in a play. The young cast do remarkably well with their material, but awkward direction too often negates their abilities. They deserve better than this. [Julie Balazs]
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Jan 18 and 20, £4/£2
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Jan 18 and 20, £4/£2