Content area
Full Text
'Four great writers', says the programme's introduction, alerting us to the Oxford Stage Company's move into 'a new and exciting era'. Shakespeare (Troilus and Cressida) - obviously great, perhaps greatest of writers; Chekhov (Three Sisters) - certainly a great playwright; John Whiting (A Penny for a Song) - perhaps. Robert Holman (Making Noise Quietly) - possibly, one day, but I think not yet. This kind of spin can boomerang and make a promising project sound ridiculous before it is really launched.
`Four works that explore different aspects of love and war, friendship and violence.' These common themes for the Company's 1999 productions are nearer the mark, but there is still the hint of selfconsciously slipping in a scarcely tried new wine under the label of vintage, or at least a reputable label. Mr Holman's works, it is true, have been backed by two of the best theatrical establishments: the RSC and the Royal Court. But what does this actually prove and does this kind of hype really help? Or am I being unfair in letting my attitudes be thus prejudiced by the pre-performance programme notes? In fact both the company and, as it turns out, the play are good enough not to need partial deception of this kind of salesmanship. But only just. Perhaps that is why they almost fall victim to this current, of its nature, deceptive market trend. So let us start from prescratch and attempt to approach the plays with clear perceptions and appreciate them in their own wrights (sic!). I say plays, because Making Noise Quietly is in fact three short plays, two performed before the interval, one after.
The first -- Being Friends - loses no time in getting to the heart of its matter. Within four minutes we, the audience, have learned, by an excess of gratuitous exposition by the two participants, that Oliver is a Quaker, conscientiously farming out the war and Eric a disabled writer likewise detached from participation in the violence symbolised by the droning, sometimes exploding, doodlebugs that impinge upon the idyllic pastoral scene:...