Review by Mary Couzens
Friendly Fire Productions present Plastic Zion
Photo Courtesy of Friendly Fire Productions A Play by Chris Ward Directed by James Martin Charlton White Bear Theatre 28 MARCH - 16 APRIL 2006
Freedom of Choice… In this era of Thatcher inspired mandatory overtime and career burnout, Chris Ward's 1982 play Plastic Zion seems more topical than ever. Not discounting the fact that this year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the birth of Punk rock, and the now legendary July 4 th Ramones concert at the Roundhouse, here in London, attended by youthful, hero-worshipping members of the Sex Pistols and Clash, eager to be photographed with their idols, who'd started three years earlier in a New York dive called CBGB. Ward's insightful play features a variety of archetypal figures, whose frustrations may seem peculiar to their time at first glance. However, the causes of their angst are timeless ones, in that they have all been disillusioned by society's increasingly mad pursuit of success, no matter the cost. Clem has already achieved success, to a point, in that his punk band actually had a hit record – once. But, as they say, once is not enough, and the same could be said of Clem's upcoming second album, on which, for him, everything rides: his pride, his dignity, and his hope. After all, a lack of hope is what has driven him to become a punk-rocker in the first place. The action of the play is set inside an abandoned café in Northern France, in 1982, where cross-dressing Carly, who reflects the ‘gender-benders' of Blitz Club days, and fag hag Dagmar sit at a table, chatting about the everyday things that make up their worlds, like scrounging for cigarettes and booze, and trying to be glamorous. When an unassuming fellow called Yak, wearing by then unfashionable Doc Marten boots, interrupts their banal discourse, a power struggle soon commences, with the needs of the duo outweighing the needs of the one. However, the smaller drama between this trio serves to set up larger ones, between Clem and his girlfriend, Josephine, and, more importantly, between Clem and himself, in his position of rebel with pause. Despite his flagging career, Clem, as played by Nigel Croft-Adams is anything but dead. Actor Croft-Adams, who trained at the Lee Strasberg School in NYC, and has performed in various off-Broadway productions, prior to his leading role in Plastic Zion , looks and feels like the real thing - a former punk star, a.k.a. boy from the wrong side of the tracks who's made good, on the skids. His attitude, manner and ethos seem to stem from the heart, instead of the pages of Chris Ward's play, and both the audience and the production itself were all the richer for his memorable performance. Tim McFarland is suitably pretty and bitchy as cross dresser Carly, while Minouche Kaftel strikes a resoundingly dull chord as his strangely affected, oddly accented fag-hag friend, Dagmar. Ben Richardson provides ready, steady support as Yak, the ‘mate' who is only too eager to be Clem's sidekick. Nigel Croft-Adams, in the role of erstwhile rocker Clem, seemed to embody the very feeling at the outset of the post-punk era, with its continuing sense of hopelessness, and growing complacency. And his attitude, posturing, and raging as a prematurely fading star were totally in keeping with the purveyors of the music the actor himself pays tribute to. However, in direct opposition to his character Clem, who has courted fame so fast and loud that its hollow echo still reverberates in his head, Croft-Adams is a performer whose star is definitely on the rise. Caroline O' Hara, who plays Clem's youthful love-hate interest, Josephine, teeters along the darker edges of aristocratic elegance in her tattered gown, and blood-stained tights. O'Hara's performance mixes just the right blend of upmarket trashiness, with an unhealthy pinch of self-destructiveness. There is never a moment of doubt that the actress is Josephine, the teenage groupie who has come to the realisation that, by teaming up with moody, swinging Clem, she has become half of a dysfunctional whole. This aspect of the play almost acts as a re-working of ‘Beauty and the Beast,' with the added twist that society girl Josephine, has run away from the family mansion to take her chances with rough and tumble rocker Clem. While the punk era itself is being documented at a furiously alarming pace, as if the sun might slip over the horizon, and put out its party lights, once and for all, some of the movement's unknowing forefathers, like The New York Dolls are in the process of reforming. Perhaps Chris Ward's play Plastic Zion serves as a fitting reminder then that our much needed spirits of anarchy and individuality have not completely died out yet, but are still there, lurking somewhere between the lines. Friendly Fire Productions present Plastic Zion A Play by Chris Ward Directed by James Martin Charlton 28 MARCH - 16 APRIL 2006Tues to Sat @ 7.30pm / Sun @ 4pm Tickets - £10 / Conc. £8 WHITE BEAR THEATRE138 Kennington Park Road London SE11. Tube - Kennington BOX OFFICE - Telephone: 020 7793 9193 |
