Theatreguide.London
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The Theatreguide.London Review
Red Bud
Royal Court Upstairs Autumn
2010
This new play by American Brett Neveu tells a story you've seen too many times before for this version to have much effect.
A playwright
would have to present some new angles or at least more rounded and
sympathetic characters to offer something new, and Neveu just retravels
well-trodden ground.
A group of friends in their thirties gather, as they have every year
since their teens, at a motorcycle race that is really just an excuse
for a weekend of beer drinking, pot smoking and general rowdy bonding.
But there are signs that they're getting a little old for this. One guy
has lost his job and is in serious financial trouble, one is about to be
a father, the most mature among them has fallen for a 19-year-old girl,
and so on.
And the unacknowledged tensions bring out old resentments and buried
animosities that bode ill for the continuation of this tradition.
Well, yes, you can't stay a kid forever, and growing up isn't fun, and
friends are likely to drift apart, and a veneer of friendship may well
cover small grudges that grow through not being vented.
You've heard it all before, even if you've never seen a play in your
life (It's a recurring staple plot line on soap operas), and Neveu
really doesn't have anything new to say about it.
Meanwhile the characters are little more than walking labels - the
Midlife Crisis, the Guy Not Ready To Be A Father, etc. - and a
hard-working cast and director Jo McInnes are unable to flesh them out
and make us care about them.
Special credit to designer Tom Hadley, who captures the sight, feel and
even smell of farmland turned into festival campground, so that your
first sensory impressions as you enter the playing space may be the most
real-feeling experience of the entire evening.
Gerald Berkowitz
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