First let me recommend this delightful venue. Just 10 minutes’ walk from either Gloucester Road or South Kensington tube stations, the Drayton Arms is a traditional grand and buzzy pub. Its location means it is crammed with vibrant and colourful people. Most of them young, well-heeled locals. Yet it has a homely and comfortable feel. There’s an assortment of seating choices and the bar staff are super-friendly.
The small theatre upstairs is excellent too. Reminiscent of The Donmar there’s just a few rows of bench seats – some of them repaired with old pairs of jeans - and a sizeable but intimate floor area where the action takes place. I really liked this venue and plan to return soon – there are some interesting promises on the future events list.
The play is described as an artist falling for the man for whom she is preparing a portrait while her friend and her boyfriend cause her to be paranoid. Mmm.
Face to face starts well. The staging perfectly conveys an artist’s studio – there’s a mattress centre stage, interesting pieces of art work around the periphery and a large gold frame suspended at the back.
The lead – Rachel (played by Rebecca Bell) - is immediately convincing as a troubled on-the-edge artist with issues (she’s faking the extent of her injuries). There were some early laughs as the sitter demonstrates beautifully the discomfort of having his photograph taken. The sound effects (e.g. the Skype dialling tone) and music were well produced.
Although I wasn’t sure what was happening during the play, I found myself drawn in and intrigued to learn what happens. Although there was a “big reveal” at the end it didn’t leave me satisfied - there were too many unresolved issues and unanswered questions.
There are some intriguing themes about the role of technology in providing a life-line to isolated people, about the boundaries of privacy in social media and about the meaning of art which could all be developed further. I think you could safely describe the ideas in the dialogue as intellectual.
Writer Heather Jeffery has some skill as each of the characters was intensely irritating and unlikeable. Rebecca as she demonstrated the pretension that she said she rejected, Greg because he placidly accepted all the hysterical and controlling behaviour from Rebecca, Shaun because he was just a nasty piece of work and Ajani because she was so up herself.
Both my companion and I were somewhat bemused. We talked quite a lot afterwards trying to work out what we had seen and what it had meant. And after some discussion we still didn’t really know. Maybe that’s the point. Or maybe we are just too dense to get it.
It runs until 23 May 2015
http://www.thedraytonarmstheatre.co.uk/theatre/event-list/eventdetail/4221/-/-
Photo by Sam Mellish
