Theatre
The Coup (Cottesloe) Broadway Bound (Greenwich)
History as farce
Christopher Edwards
The Coup is a new work by the Trinida- dian playwright Mustapha Matura. Violent coups d'etat occupy a central place in Trinidad's history — a point Matura brings vividly home to us in the course of a beau- tifully staged flashback to an encounter between Christopher Columbus and a native priest. More particularly this play invokes the Black Power coup of 1970 and the recent upheavals of 1990. If your first reaction to this brief summary is a glum expectation of earnest, political axe-grind- ing I am pleased to tell you that your pes- simism is mistaken. The playwright has turned these political events into an engag- ing comedy.
The evening begins with the Archbish- op's funeral oration over the coffin of Pres- ident Eddie Jones (Norman Beaton), a charismatic personality clearly based upon 'Don't ring us, we'll ring you.' the real-life, Oxford-educated Trinidadian leader Dr Eric Williams. His episcopal duties completed, the Archbishop (played as a fun-loving prelate by Oscar James) relaxes with an outsized joint. We are then shot back in time to see how the President ended up in this unfortunate condition.
Although there are certainly pointed observations being made by the writer about his fellow countrymen, the main thrust of the piece is humorous. So, for instance, despite the slight chill beneath the surface of the President's attempts to deal with his usurping army officers, the life of the writing flows from the Presi- dent's very funny, and successful, efforts to outwit his captors. Norman Beaton's Presi- dent is a fast-talking, wily comedian. That characterisation, I feel sure, is full of delib- erate satirical significance on the part of Mustapha Matura. But, for the most part, the President brings us over to his way of seeing things by his gift of the gab and by making us laugh so much.
The country that both he and the army officers try to rule is clearly an ungovern- able muddle. A firing squad fails hilariously to perform its duties. Nuns spend their time speculating about the prodigious dimensions of their leader's private parts. The message seems to be that in Trinidad history repeats itself first as farce and then again (and again) as farce. The play is uneven and, later on, it loses its sense of direction. But Matura's fine ear for West Indian dialogue and the racy exuberance brought to the acting,,by all the cast make this a lively and enjoyable production.
Neil Simon's Broadway Bound, at the Greenwich Theatre, rounds off the play- wright's trilogy of broadly autobiographical plays. The action, as anyone who saw Brighton Beach Memoirs will recall, starts in the poorer parts of Brooklyn. But, thanks to the young brothers' success in writing comic sketches, it seems that life is on the up and up (hence the title of the play). Eugene and Stanley may help to shift the family up the ladder. In the background, however, their parents' marriage is break- ing apart.
There is no question about Neil Simon's skill as a craftsman. What I found very resistible was the rose-tinted hue with which virtually every detail of his recollect- ed youth is invested. The self-consciousness of the writing creates far too many 'trigger' moments when we feel the playwright's own fond emotions tugging at our sleeves, setting us up for a key emotional scene. Nothing so readily kills a response as this sort of transparent manipulation. The best moments by far are supplied by Anna Massey, who plays the mother Kate. Thin, starved of affection and driven back on her memories, she succeeds in producing sever- al scenes of genuine emotional power. Her husband Jack, played by Gary Waldhorn, is excellent too. Nothing wrong with the cast or, for the most part, with the accents. It is the play that lets things down.
Previous page
