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The Actor Works The Sweetest Swing in Baseball by Rebecca Gilman
Pacific Playhouse 18 - 22 June, 2008
A review by Alan Taylor for EXTRA! EXTRA!
Dana Fielding is a famous artist whose last art show took a turn for the worse. Ending up in a psychiatric ward, she refuses to go home and impersonates famous baseballer Daryl Strawberry to try and trick the psychiatrists into thinking she has Multiple Personality Disorder. Will she ever find her true self again? The play represents a psychodrama playing out Fielding’s worst fears, and her highest hopes. Though stark in its contrast, the moments of Gary, a sociopath who is obsessed with killing newsreader Kevin Bridges, providing an obstacle at every step of Fielding’s recovery and Dr. Gilbert slowly cracking the case provide the real highlights. The interplay and dialogue provides a much better dimension than the internal neuroses of Fielding. Starting at a giddying pace that doesn’t really stop, the feeling of displacement is constant all the way through. From artist to baseballer, from sanity to asylum, Gilman’s writing takes us on a credible path, but Amanda Sterkenburg’s interpretation of Dana makes it so tense to watch that you wish the tone and pace were a bit varied so you could take a breather between breakdowns. Estella Daniels stands out as the cool Dr. Gilbert; a relentless tough cookie who knows what’s best. Luke Bennett also makes a cute Michael, playing off the slightly sinister yet darkly comic Hyung Bum Park as Gary. Well staged, the production makes for a good jaunt to the Pacific Playhouse. The use of space and closeness of the audience provided an entrancing and charismatic feel to the piece without being too intimate. The transitions are smooth and the appropriate use of music and lighting give the right amount of mood to the piece without clogging up the work. Some conviction and confidence would give the play a much needed boost, but the strong statements and interplay carry it through. The writing really needed to come out in its nuances and subtleties, but it was a very worthwhile production. With brooding moments and equally funny references to itself, it weaves an interesting web only slightly let down by its conclusion. Nevertheless, tense and neurotic with an interesting comical black undertone.
Box Office – 020 7702 0909 Times: 7.30pm, 4pm on the 22nd Tickets £10/ £8 conc.
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