Review: PARLOUR SONG, Greenwich Theatre
Photo credit: Danny Kaan
It’s good to see that Greenwich Theatre have revived another of Jez Butterworth’s earlier plays, following their successful production of The River. This time, it’s Parlour Song from 2008. The three-hander features the disintegration of more than one relationship during a tightly compressed 90-minute run time. Butterworth has a good ear for the inconsequentialities of everyday speech and his dialogue seems real, with characters finishing each other’s lines.
The suburban setting is a familiar one, but the decision of designer Emily Bestow to create a cross-section of a house that is at once blueprint and building is inspired. Decorated with household objects that keep disappearing and with the addition of Hannah Schlenker’s video design, this is a set that is both complex and highly effective.
Artistic Director of Greenwich Theatre, James Hadrell, once again directs and has created an intelligent and thoughtful account of this early work dealing in suburban despair and desperation. This theatre consistently hits above its grade and deserves support from audiences when much of its previous grant support has disappeared.
Demolition expert Ned (demolition being something of a theme of the play), whose belongings keep disappearing and who does not understand what is happening to his relationship, is played by Naveed Khan. Khan has to start out as an archetypal suburbanite who has it all but then rapidly sees it all fall apart: it’s a big ask but he convinces in the role. As car wash owner Dale, Jeremy Edwards appears more together and in charge but is just as lost in his own way. This is a clever performance, portraying the domineering and authoritative side of his character without becoming unsympathetic.
In many ways, Kellie Shirley has the most difficult task as Ned’s wife Joy: not seen for much of the play and perhaps underwritten when she does appear. Shirley surmounts these difficulties and gives a nuanced performance of a woman trapped in a relationship and a setting.
By the end of this short play (performed straight through with no interval as is becoming the norm), all three characters have gained some self-knowledge although it is not at all clear what will happen next to them. A bleak scene at the allotments at 3am indicates how much has changed. The Arndale Centre is blown up as planned but what is the future for these three people (and Dale’s unseen wife)?
A sophisticated production of a little-known play, Parlour Song deserves to find an audience as the enterprising Greenwich Theatre continues to mount drama at such a difficult time for the arts in general.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Chris Abbott
Parlour Song plays at Greenwich Theatre until 24 May, with further info here.
