Edinburgh 2002

Fringe

Agnes
Crowne Plaza Hotel

James Panton

Given our contemporary cultural preoccupations it is not surprising that the theme of child abuse has been reappearing more and more often in Fringe theatre over the past few years, and that it has become a topic which is increasingly difficult to deal with in anything but the most clichéd way. With 'Agnes', however, Hull University's Z Theatre Company has produced a piece of theatre that deserves serious critical attention.

This said, we need to note that Agnes is itself never too far from cliché. The tale is one we know of old: an over-bearing father who sexually abuses his daughter whilst claiming his abuse as a sign of his love; a mother who knows what's going on but doesn't want to admit it and turns instead to Valium; and a daughter whose childhood is robbed from her and who, unsurprisingly, finds relationships based on love and trust increasingly difficult.

These are clichés of course only because they represent a certain truth, but they are ideas which are such common currency that they tell us little we didn't already know. Further, one gets the impression that Agnes was motivated by an attempt to tell us how terrible the abuse of an innocent is, and while this is done with distressing effect, it is done at the expense of exploring such relationships in a way that might reveal more about them than we already know. But if we leave behind the script and the motivation for this piece, we are left with a work of theatre which is directed, produced and performed in a truly original way.

We are taken through the life of Agnes from the age of twelve to her early adulthood by three different actors who play her at different levels of maturity and experience. Brilliantly, we are taken into the depths of her psyche by the device of having each of the players on stage throughout the performance, hidden only slightly behind curtains that form a kind of on-stage wings, as Agnes remembers her experiences and reflects upon them.

The effect is to build up a depth of introspection and reflection such that childhood experience is never far from the reflections of Agnes as late teenager and Agnes as young adult. The rest of the players - father, mother, grandmother, baby sister - are also kept on stage throughout in the same way, forming a quasi-Greek chorus who are both agents and observers throughout.

The end result is an original and effective portrayal of a girl who is at one in the same time both an object of abuse and a subject attempting to come to terms with her experiences. The acting throughout is of a very high standard. Two particularly disturbing episodes involve the presentation of the first time that Agnes is abused by her father, which is done with such effect and realism that one is left feeling physically sick, and a presentation of Agnes as she suffers a miscarriage which, without wishing to give a way the techniques used, is done in a stylised way that captures the horror of the situation with terrible precision.

A slide projector is used to throw up images at the side of the space which focus one's mind on the horror of the scene being played out before you, adding to the intensity of the emotionally disturbing experience one experiences watching this piece of theatre.

Overall, the piece is too long; at times it attempts to explain too much and in doing so some of the intensity is lost. Nonetheless, the precision of the players, and the originality of the direction and production, suggest that this is a company with a great deal of talent. One is left with the feeling that they might have done themselves even more justice with a better and more originally piece of writing, but this said, Agnes treats a difficult subject in a way which although not altogether original, is no less disturbing and thought-provoking for that .

Run over.