THEATRE – CRADLE ME, FINBOROUGH THEATRE
by Ruth McGarahan
Cradle Me
The Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED
By Simon Vinnicombe
Wednesday, 1 October – Saturday, 25 October 2008
Tuesday to Saturday Evenings at 7.30pm.
Saturday and Sunday Matinees at 3.00pm (except Saturday, 4 October).
Tickets £13, £9 concessions, except Tuesday Evenings £9 all seats, and Saturday evenings £13 all seats. , £9 concessions, except Tuesday Evenings £9 all seats, and Saturday evenings £13 all seats.
http://www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk/
Simon Vinnicombe’s Cradle Me is a brilliant and moving piece of writing. The despair and awkwardness prevalent in the piece is effectively accentuated by the intimate setting of the Finborough theatre – a perfect location for this play. The traverse stage with the audience staring at each other throughout the performance adds to the confrontational and embarrassed atmosphere that the actors so successfully create.
Luke Treadaway’s heart-breaking Daniel steals the show; his body language, subtle facial expressions and perfect delivery combining to make the character come alive. Turns out he has a great singing voice too as displayed by the almost Brechtian outburst of song in the middle of his performance! Sarah Bedi also gives a great performance as Louise – she successfully portrays the lighter comedic elements of the play while effectively evoking emotion in the later darker moments. They are let down slightly by the mother and father characters in the play. It takes a while to feel any sort of connection with them and they did not always engage particularly well with the other characters. However, all stops are pulled out for the final climactic scenes which were performed exsquisitely and managed to make any thoughts of the play’s weaknesses fade away.
The performance creates the necessary juxtapositions needed in the play – between true love and awkwardness, comedy and despair. The technical elements are excellent and the set, music and lighting enhance the overall performance enormously.
This is hardly a feel good play – you might not feel particularly uplifted as the curtain goes down, but it is well worth watching , mainly because of its exceptional script and two outstanding performances.
