‘Orphans’ Jermyn Street Theatre – Review
Ok. I’m not a fan of English actors doing American accents. It’s usually kinda weird sounding. Who knows, one day it may be as unacceptable as me doing a Chinese one. Not for PC reasons of course, more because we’re usually crap at America. Anyway, these chaps do the American thing. And you know? Just like them, I soon forgot they were doing it. I was in their world within seconds.
Orphans is a frighteningly good show.
Two brothers live together, one – Phillip – apparently a bit on the slow side, the other – Treat – over protective, dangerous, criminal; the former confined to live life in their flat, the other free to terrorise and steal from the world outside. If you stop to think whether this is even remotely credible a setup, that might be it. You’d pack up and go. But you don’t. Chris Walley as Treat and Fred Woodley Evans as Phillip seize the small stage from right in front of the audience and magic it – and us – into their reality. These guys are extraordinary. And when Treat kidnaps Harold back to the flat to ransom him off, Forbes Masson as Harold, benign and avuncular one second, chilling with menace the next, promptly steals the show. Yep – it just gets better. Or worse, if you’re on stage. This is a dark, funny play about survival. Until you don’t.
And that set by Sarah Beaton? Well, let’s just say I went home and scrubbed away the finger marks around my light switches. Beaton offers us a window onto a world outside that we never see, all while the world we do collapses into it’s own small space.
Al Miller directs the show, somehow coaxing humanity, even nuance and charm, from what are essentially caricatures played out on stage. And this is just what that teeny weeny box of magic that is the Jermyn Street Theatre excels at: searching out excellence, supporting new talent and giving it a shop window. Why Penny and Howard, the founders of JST, arn’t already burdened with honours from a grateful industry after 30 years of doing so, is inexplicable.
Oh, and it would be five stars from us if we did that sort of thing. Which we sometimes do.
by Chris Parkinson