Clarkston (again)

I saw this a few weeks ago (notes here) and despite some reservations, I really was blown away by the performances.  I also felt it had taken me a while to properly get to grips with it the first time around, and as it isn’t the sort of thing that gets recorded for posterity I grabbed a last minute bargain ticket in the front row of the circle to watch it again.  

Everything I said about it the first time is still true, an intimate play with big themes, about two young men trying to find their place in a world which doesn’t really have space for their dreams, living small lives in small towns which are not where the action is.  I like the way that the big stories of the western colonialist expansion, tales of derring do which are used to create a great national story, are nicely undercut through Lewis and Clark’s 1804-6 expedition diaries, talking about the realities of hard travel, bad food, mixed with appalling racism and exploitation of the native peoples and slavery.  Maybe those small lives aren’t as bad after all. 

In the programme there’s an interview with Samuel D Hunter (writer) and Jack Serio (director) talking about theatrical essentialism and that is something this play does pretty well; takes some big ideas and pares them back.  I also noticed the lighting design more this time, which isn’t groundbreaking but quietly supported the development of the story.  

The performances are still all spot on, with both Joe Locke and Sophie Melville landing their characters beautifully.  But I loved Ruaridh Mollica’s vulnerable opening up even more this time.  I heard Michael Sheen this morning on the radio talking about spotting that essential talent that some people have, and it feels like that applies to this young actor. I know he has some Marvel work coming up next but I hope he keeps his options wider than that. I predict a really interesting career for him.  

They wildly overpriced this play at first, and I think that’s one of the reasons it didn’t sell out, plus there’s not very much enticing or escapist about terminal illness, blighted lives and small towns - particularly when there are musicals playing just up the road.  But there was beauty in this intimate look at the value of small quiet lives and how they still have meaning.