Tom Jacobson’s calculated and intuitive
The Twentieth Century Way is unassuming
yet intriguing, and jolts to life in its UK premier, under the direction of
Marylynne Anderson-Cooper.
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| James Sindall and Fraser Wall as Warren and Brown Photo credit - Laura Hyatt |
Two actors waiting for an
audition engage in a drawn out, high stakes improvisation exercise. The
characters that they invent for themselves; police employed ‘vice specialists’
Brown and Warren, embark on a undercover operation to root out homosexual men within
the elite of 1914 Long Beach society, by enticing men to engage in blowjobs (also
known as ‘the twentieth century way’ owing to their prevalence as a result of
increased public cleanliness at the beginning of the twentieth century) in
public bathrooms before marking them with a black cross and arresting them for
social vagrancy. While inventing and exploring a multitude of different roles, Brown and Warren begin to empathise with their characters, and a harrowing
element of gay rights history bubbles to the forefront.
As the improvisation goes on, the
pair find themselves inventing more and more new characters, and switch between
them at such a pace that it almost becomes impossible to tell where Brown and
Warren end and their creations begin. In fact, at points is seems like even
they forget, albeit briefly, that their exercise is just a game. The resulting
performances are enthralling, with a sustained tenseness permeating the whole
piece.
Inescapable tenseness is amplified by Peter
Harrison’s evocative lighting, meanwhile Joyce Rose Anne Robustelli’s fine
production design, complete with canny suggestive costume elements which help
to keep the audience up to speed with the often frantic switching of characters
and locations, is simplistic yet aesthetically effective.
Actors Fraser Wall and James
Sindall play off each other extraordinarily well, with Wall bringing an absorbing
nervous energy to Brown, while Sindall’s stoicism as Warren is interspersed
with moments of terseness, adding yet another layer to the piece. As a duo they
are exciting to watch, seamlessly switching from one character to another and relying on their canny audience keep up with them. The brisk pace is
handled deftly, and clarity is almost always present.
At times though, The Twentieth Century Way’s gay rights
focus is overshadowed by the piece’s framing device, and the overarching exploration
of acting as an art form does occasionally derail the characters' fabricated plot at critical
moments.
Crucially though, The Twentieth Century Way simmers with riveting
tension before delivering a surprising final twist. It rewards its shrewd
audience members with a satisfying finale, and despite moments of wittiness,
maintains a fitting solemnity throughout.
For more information about this
production of The Twentieth Century Way, visit www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk/show/twentieth-century-way
