Play review (2)

When most Londoners see a crazy woman on the street mumbling nonsense to herself, they walk by briskly, pretending not to notice. Consequently, the can that the woman usually holds remains empty, not contributed to by passers by. With Debbie Tucker Green’s Random, The Royal Court – for the first 15 minutes at least – presents a woman rambling just as ludicrously as the woman on the street. Yet somehow, The Royal Court has not only convinced people to stay and watch the performance, it has actually convinced them to pay for admission.

The unnamed-female protagonist’s ramblings do eventually turn into a discernable plot. A woman griping about her daily routine, which is complete with her brother’s odor, mother’s nagging, lover’s tardiness and co-workers’ phoniness, becomes trivialized with an urgent message from mum. When she returns home, responding to the message, she discovers police cars surrounding her family residence. Life will never be the same.

Green’s Random wants to remind us all just how, well, random teen violence can be. Gangs strike victims who often don’t deserve it. It wants to momentarily interrupt our daily routine with thoughts about the issue so that we can help to be part of a solution that will prevent teen violence from catastrophically and permanently disrupting all of our lives.

The problem is that no one needs Green to tell them about this. A newspaper, which Green actually criticizes, does a much better job. It has real stories, real words and unfortunately can usually offer several similar stories within the same edition. The woman’s story in this play, though compelling, is but one of many and has nothing unique to offer. Perhaps that is part of the point of Random, that gangs can affect even the most common among us, but Green’s script is not needed to make this point.

Nadine Marshall does a great job telling the story, however, and is the only reason to see this production directed by Sacha Wares. Marshall’s facial expressions and large gestures animate the story as well as the many roles she assumes and forgive her sometimes inaudibly thick accent. She becomes a real-live cartoon when appropriate, breathing life into this play about death. Wares has chosen to keep Marshall in the center of the stage for the entirety of this 50-minute one act drama, but Marshall’s performance is far from static.

Still, the message of the play has enough legs to move without Random ever being written. If you like to get your news from a biased source and be subjected to one individual story, by all means spend the 15 quid at The Royal Court. But, if you would rather get your news from a credible Times or Guardian journalist attempting to tell the same story, no one will blame you. And The Guardian will only cost you 80p.

Comments Welcome,
Andrew