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Wasted journey

Lloyd Evans

Wednesday, 16th July 2008

Free Outgoing (Royal Court), Fanshen (295 Regent St), Frozen (Riverside)

The play premièred in 1975 and in those days playwrights were expected to tuck a Big Message, like a Christmas shilling, into their theatrical cake. And here it is: communism may look glamorous but it’s dangerous, too, so if the glorious revolution starts in your factory think first before burning your overalls, snapping the conveyor belt in two, singing the ‘Internationale’ and shooting the foreman. That seems a bit obvious today (and it wasn’t exactly news in 1975), but the play is a still a valuable and clear-headed piece of social history. Frances Loy’s fine production is full of energetic performances and it finishes with a splendid visual flourish. A tough but rewarding night out.

Frozen by Bryony Lavery is a genre-crossing play that works despite its untidy construction. The subject matter is universal. Why do child-killers do it? Nancy, a mother, grieves for her murdered daughter. Agnetha, a psychologist, believes the killer’s conduct is ‘not a sin but a symptom’. In a fascinating lecture she outlines the theory that psychopathic murderers are made, not begotten, and that injuries to the front of the head can turn anyone into a killer.

The mismatch between lecture and drama scarcely matters, and the production is distinguished by excellent performances. Jack James is eerily good as the lonely child-snatcher whose tattoos are the best friend he ever had. And Dorothy Lawrence, as the bereft mother, refrains from emptying bucketloads of brine over the stalls. There’s nothing like a cascade of hot tears to leave an audience cold. Instead of stage grief, with its extrovert and simplistic luxuries, she leads us into a portrait of true mourning, a humble, quiet and inscrutable web of feeling.