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Strawberries
in January |
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Andrew
Haydon | |
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Paines Plough's latest offering at the Traverse is something of a surprise. From the company that brought you Mark Ravenhill, Sarah Kane and more recently, Philip Ridley's ultraviolent Mercury Fur comes… a light romantic comedy about four inhabitants of Quebec. It's not all change, though: directed with characteristic thoroughness and flair by artistic director Roxanna Silbert and starring Paul Thomas Hickey - last seen earlier this year in Paines Plough's If Destroyed True, and even featuring something which looks suspiciously like the recycled set from another recent Paines Plough production (Pyrenees), Strawberries In January makes an effective case for the company's commitment to by far the most diverse selection of new work currently offered by any new writing house, and all the while still managing to seem very much like a Paines Plough production. The play itself is an odd bugger; a whimsical little thing. François owns a café, he's got a friend called Robert and an ex-flatmate, who he used to go out with, called Sophie, and he sets them up on a dinner date in his flat, and they begin a brief affair. Prior to this, Robert has gone on holiday and had a brief liason with Lea, who as a result has a child. Lea, unbeknownst to Robert, is Sophie's best friend from childhood, who has met François once, when improbably searching for Sophie in Québec without an address for her. To complicate matters further, lots of these stories are told in flashback, with the various narrators stepping in and out of the action to comment on events. This becomes trickier still, when we realise that no one is giving a full and accurate version, and alternate versions of scenes are played out, competing for our credulity. It is this theatrical tricksiness, combined with Evelyne De La Cheneliere's acerbic wit - translated for Paines Plough by Rona Munro - which prevents the romantic side of this comedy ever threatening to turn the whole into a unappealing slushy mess. Nonetheless, the show still manages to pull off one of the most unashamed feelgood endings you're likely to see this Edinburgh.
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