Keepers

PLAY REVIEW: KEEPERS at Ipswich New Wolsey

The longest and most tedious short play I have ever seen.

I had heard of this play before, an article absorbed several months ago and filed deep in the recesses of the mind. But sadly this review was far more enjoyable than the show itself. I remember being intrigued by the idea - two nineteenth century lighthouse keepers living out their lives on stage until the death of one brings the other to the brink of madness, made crazy by the ever-present body of his friend, his only companion until they come to change the shift.

On paper, a particularly unique inspirational event for creating theatre. In practise the time really dragged as soon as the unfortunate Thomas Griffith meets his death. It is not easy to act a dead man, especially when it has to be sustained for half of the play's running time. I found the acting most disturbing, from the abuse of the "body" by his crazed friend, to his stringing-up outside the lighthouse. Clearly this was Day's intention, to bring us into the world of Thomas Howell, forced to live with the body of his dead friend until rescue. I certainly felt nauseated by the writhing body.

What was more irritating for me, and unnecessary, was the tedium that set in during the final minutes. There were several scenes when I thought the curtain call would have been appropriate, and I kept expecting the end long before it came. Each time the lights would come up and the nightmare would be dragged out a little longer. I could blame this on theatre fatigue - a heavy week of shows for me - but I suppose it did impart a real feel for the agony of those weeks Howell endured alone with his dead friend. Just a bit too much agony for me.

In all fairness, the preceding scenes were interesting, theatrically, and the whole play was technically clever. Particularly enjoyable were the fishing scene, the drawn-out portrayal of the lightning of the lamp, and the ladder climbing. Acting a multi-storied lighthouse with a huge lamp above and the crashing waves below was never going to be easy, but the actors excelled in bringing the space to life with their movement between scenes, and the neat marking-out of the boundaries with the window-cleaning scene, squeaks carefully timed to match Thomas Griffith's movements.

A techincally clever and amusing play, but with an unnecessary, almost sadistic level of tedium inflicted on the audience.