The Winterling (Theatre)
The Winterling
(Synopsis & Reviews)
Synopsis:
Coming Soon!
Critics’ Reviews: (#1)
Jez Butterworth’s first play, Mojo, was a Soho thriller; his second, The Night Heron, was stuffedwith rural symbolism. His new play contains echoes of both. But the biggest influence is that of Pinter, whose distinctive voice is currently reverberating through British drama in ways that begin to worry me.
Butterworth’s setting is a derelict Dartmoor farmhouse inhabited by West, a gangland fugitive, and a female waif called Lue. When West’s old partner, Wally, turns up accompanied by his city-slicker stepson, Patsy, a power-play naturally ensues. Since West is on his own territory and seems disturbed by the death of an ex-colleague, I naturally assumed he had lured these East End hoods to Dartmoor to exact revenge. But all, thankfully, is not what it seems.
As we know from previous plays, Butterworth’s language has a dazzling, tactile vividness. Butterworth throws in a character called Draycott who is a hobo cook scrounging his way round the West Country; when he says, “there’s a baker in Ashburton who’ll pay me two quid just to fuck off,” you instantly believe him.
But what is Butterworth’s play telling us? Nothing more that I could discern than that man is a territorial animal engaged in a desperate battle for survival. The Pinter influence is also ubiquitous. Draycott is a rustic version of Davies from The Caretaker, even at one point claiming: “You’ve got the wrong bloke, mate.” And the denouement inescapably evokes The Dumb Waiter. In a way this is a tribute to Pinter but, after seeing this and The Cut, I’m concerned that too many writers are imitating the master’s voice rather than discovering their own.
Ian Rickson’s production undeniably generates its own tension. Daniel Mays is also riveting as Patsy while Robert Glenister’s West is all vulpine menace. But, despite the sound of war-planes zooming overhead, this is a hermetic play that basically offers us Mojo with mud on its boots.
~ Michael Billington, Guardian Unlimited Arts 26/3/06
Critics’ Reviews: (#2)
Jez Butterworth’s darkly comic drama is built on more plot twists and turns than a theme park ride, more rapid-fire jokes than a stand-up comic’s convention and more character reversals than a case of multiple personality disorder. If perhaps it indulges itself a bit too far in each of those directions, only a churl would complain about its overabundance.
A hard man evidently hiding out in a Dartmoor farmhouse is visited by an old pal and his young associate. After some verbal sparring, in which the host uses wit and fast talk as assertions of authority in the manner of early Pinter, he announces that he wants to come in out of the cold.
Just as we’ve absorbed that, a flashback completely negates everything, changing our perception of everyone involved. And then a return to the present adds new plot and character twists, leading to a conclusion dark enough to satisfy any film noir fan.
Robert Glenister plays the central character with an understated menace and authority that make the later revelations particularly surprising. Jerome Flynn is strong as the old pal who may not be as deferential as he seems, while Daniel Mays particularly scores as the wide boy, surprisingly willing and able to hold his own in the verbal one-upmanship. Roger Lloyd Pack as a neighbour and Sally Hawkins as a homeless girl both effectively turn what are at first comic characters into something deeper. Ian Rickson’s direction skilfully navigates the play’s twists, reversals and shifts in tone.
~ Gerald Berkowitz, The Stage 15/3/06
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