Ursula Strauss
posted 12 June 2006

Hear and Now is the story of a man who is crippled, not just bodily, but by the lies he tells to protect himself. Into his world comes an also wounded neighbour, who begins to dig up his secrets. Memories recounted begin to assemble and re-assemble truths, and our own memory of what has already taken place on the stage involves us in this process.

The play begins with the stage descending into darkness. This inversion of the norm is held just a little longer than is needed to allow the actors onto the stage, just to sink into our collective consciousness. It is a part of the motif of burial that continues throughout the play. The light reveals a man who bears around with him the useless legs of a child, representing both his ongoing physical disability and also where he is emotionally stuck. The legs are cleverly used to metamorphose into his younger self, with the actor becoming his frightening father.

Director (and, with Lionel Newton, co-author) Lara Foot Newman has a good concept of these kinds of theatrical possibility. Doors and windows are picked up and put down by the characters, also demonstrating how the barriers between people are constructed and set aside. Desire becomes focused around a box of Romany Cream biscuits. At times, however, these kinds of moments could have been more fully integrated into the action of the play, or they could have been more consistently applied throughout the dialogue.

Denise Newman is very believable as the soft-hearted, self-sacrificing Elsie. A vision of good-naturedness, she provides the emotional core of the play. Despite the general pleasantness, the play lacks something of the emotional grip such a desperate situation should have. Maybe because it is too clear where the play is going - the revelation of the man's secret (although the play does make the point that there are always more secrets). Also, Lionel Newton as the Man seems perhaps too active and alive to convey fully his paralysis. However, the play does effectively illustrate the way in which emotional closeness is a process which occurs in time, and never really ends.

Till 24 June 2006