Everything Theatre Reviews, interviews and news for theatre lovers, London and beyond
Far more than two straightforward monologues as the title implies, this single narrative-free performance with live music impresses and frustrates in equal measure. Summary
Rating
Good
Rarely, in my long and varied reviewing career, have I seen punctuation so wilfully and misleadingly misused. Tongues & Savage/Love (note the ampersand) is categorically not two pieces of theatre. It is not two of anything. The two rarely revived texts have been weaved together into one 75-minute continuous performance. Continuous, however, should not be confused with coherent, as story is jettisoned, structure spurned and clarity kicked into touch. It put me in mind of 1950s Greenwich Village and how I imagine beat poetry shindigs went down. Impenetrable, perhaps, but far from unaffecting or unmoving.
The poetic, free-form writing certainly has the same sense of place we might get from Ginsberg or Kerouac. This isn’t a surprise given the words come from playwright Sam Shepard, Pulitzer Prize-winning chronicler of the American outcast. A co-writer, Joseph Chaikin, is credited too and a quick visit to Wikipedia suggests the two met at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York which possibly explains a lot. Tongues & Savage/Love are published as ‘monologues with percussion’ but here drums are replaced by onstage harp (Chris Clarke) and electric guitar (Juan Carlos). Their live score is more than mere accompaniment. It comments, questions and drives the action forward. Only when Carlos twiddles his effects pedal too far does anything feel jarring or intrusive.
Actors Bernice Pike and Suzy Whitefield are both spectacularly good. The programme tells us Pike performs Savage/Love and Whitefield, Tongues but it is neither here nor there. They are both on stage throughout and morph seamlessly from character to character and situation to situation. There are numerous beautifully judged moments. Pike has most of the laughs. She briefly threatens a Mick Jagger impersonation which, for some reason, I found hilarious. I adored Whitefield’s recurring melancholy old blues singer amongst others and, at one point, was genuinely moved by her simple recounting of sign-offs from numerous imagined letters: Yours sincerely, forever, yours, my darling, cordially and so on. Why? I have no idea. Call it the magic of theatre.
I wish Laura Allen had trusted the magic of theatre more in her direction. She asks her cast to move around a lot. When one actor is performing, the other self-consciously finds a corner to lurk in. The pair are also asked to use microphones from time to time. It is never quite clear why. What rules are at work? There are a couple of half-hearted moments of audience participation. Chairs are, I think, waltzed with, or at least hugged, at one point rather than just picked up and put down. The less said about Benjamin Vetluzshkikh’s distractingly heavy-handed lighting design the better.
Tongues & Savage/Love is most successful when its two wonderful actors are simply left to act. They find truth and beauty in the simplest and tiniest of moments. Characters appear fully formed and melt away seamlessly. The process is repeated again and again, over and over. The whole experience ought to wash over you. As it is, fussy direction meant I could never quite fully relax. Still, experimentation deserves to be applauded, as does the inventive use of music. I mean, when was the last time you saw a harp on stage? It’s a trend I would love to see take off.
Written by Sam Shepard & Joseph Chaikin
Director: Laura Allen
Lighting: Benjamin Vetluzshkikh
Movement Direction: Hannah Jessop
Dialogue Coach: Laura Neel
Production: Victor & Lowe Productions
Tongues and Savage/Love runs at Seven Dials Playhouse until Thursday 25 January.
Further information and bookings can be found here.
