Synopsis
Brutality. Fear. Self-loathing. A need to belong. The plays in O'Connell's Street Trilogy portray the vulnerable and the violent as they lash out against the world around them. From the adrenaline-fuelled anarchy of a car theft and the ritualised violence of teenage gangs, to the new beginning offered by a baby in the womb, life on the dirty side of the tracks is shown without compromise or sentimentality. The characters lurch between hope and despair, giving voice to the trials of change through verbal pyrotechnics and acts of sudden aggression.
Car
Two very different Englands are represented here. Different on the surface, anyway. Gary is from Middle England. He earns a good living as a salesman, has a nice wife, a nice home and nice kids. Nick is the product of a dysfunctional family from a sink estate. He gets his kicks by stealing cars with his mates. When they pinch Gary's T-reg VW Golf, their lives begin to spin out of control. And so does Gary's.
Beneath the smooth exterior is a seething cauldron of resentment. Unlike Nick, Gary knows the difference between right and wrong. Or does he? Soon after they meet for mediation, he tells Nick that he wants to pick up the teapot that stands between them and pour its boiling contents all over him.
Car
Two very different Englands are represented here. Different on the surface, anyway. Gary is from Middle England. He earns a good living as a salesman, has a nice wife, a nice home and nice kids. Nick is the product of a dysfunctional family from a sink estate. He gets his kicks by stealing cars with his mates. When they pinch Gary's T-reg VW Golf, their lives begin to spin out of control. And so does Gary's.
Beneath the smooth exterior is a seething cauldron of resentment. Unlike Nick, Gary knows the difference between right and wrong. Or does he? Soon after they meet for mediation, he tells Nick that he wants to pick up the teapot that stands between them and pour its boiling contents all over him.
Review of a live performance
Wow!
If you can only see one show this Fringe, this should be it. In his programme note the director talks about a "high octane" script and I can't think of any better word to describe both the script and the production. It is stunning.
It's a play about twockers. Twocking - taking (a car) without the owner's consent - is such a common crime that the word TWOC has actually entered the language. Twockers start young: by fourteen many are experts. For some it's youthful wrongdoing which they outgrow and eventually settle down to live normal, law-abiding lives; for others it's the first step into a life of crime, leading to burglary, robbery, mugging, and so on.
But what happens when the owner of the car you're twocking tries to stop you, and you think you might have killed him as you drive away?
This is the situation faced by the four twenty-something twockers in Car. We see the effect it has on them all, although the concentration is on one who admits to his probation officer what he's done. The probation officer sets up a meeting between the twocker and the victim, who wasn't killed but only suffered minor injuries, and, interspersed with this scene, we see the disintegration of the other three.
Put thus simply, there doesn't seem to be much to it, but it is so tightly written and the performances are, without exception, so powerful, that the audience is gripped so firmly that it is like being on an emotional rollercoaster that feels to be always on the verge of going completely out of control. In fact the emotions are out of control, but Chris O'Connell manages the extemely difficult task of directing and redirecting the audience's feelings without losing even the tiniest bit of the impact.
It is impossible to separate the performances, to say that A was better than B or C was weaker than D. This is not only an object lesson in writing, but also in direction and acting. It's going to be an almost impossible task for any production to better this one. It received one of the first batch of Fringe Firsts from the Scotsman, and I rather suspect that it will be the only production on which every reviewer will be agreed!
If you can only see one show this Fringe, this should be it. In his programme note the director talks about a "high octane" script and I can't think of any better word to describe both the script and the production. It is stunning.
It's a play about twockers. Twocking - taking (a car) without the owner's consent - is such a common crime that the word TWOC has actually entered the language. Twockers start young: by fourteen many are experts. For some it's youthful wrongdoing which they outgrow and eventually settle down to live normal, law-abiding lives; for others it's the first step into a life of crime, leading to burglary, robbery, mugging, and so on.
But what happens when the owner of the car you're twocking tries to stop you, and you think you might have killed him as you drive away?
This is the situation faced by the four twenty-something twockers in Car. We see the effect it has on them all, although the concentration is on one who admits to his probation officer what he's done. The probation officer sets up a meeting between the twocker and the victim, who wasn't killed but only suffered minor injuries, and, interspersed with this scene, we see the disintegration of the other three.
Put thus simply, there doesn't seem to be much to it, but it is so tightly written and the performances are, without exception, so powerful, that the audience is gripped so firmly that it is like being on an emotional rollercoaster that feels to be always on the verge of going completely out of control. In fact the emotions are out of control, but Chris O'Connell manages the extemely difficult task of directing and redirecting the audience's feelings without losing even the tiniest bit of the impact.
It is impossible to separate the performances, to say that A was better than B or C was weaker than D. This is not only an object lesson in writing, but also in direction and acting. It's going to be an almost impossible task for any production to better this one. It received one of the first batch of Fringe Firsts from the Scotsman, and I rather suspect that it will be the only production on which every reviewer will be agreed!
Journal Task: Initial Reaction to the Script Extract
1. What is happening during this moment in the play? Respond in as much detail as you can.
2. What is the relationship between the two characters? E.g. How do they feel about each other?
3. Who has the higher status in the scene? How do you know? Does the status shift between the characters throughout the scene. Explain your answer?
2. What is the relationship between the two characters? E.g. How do they feel about each other?
3. Who has the higher status in the scene? How do you know? Does the status shift between the characters throughout the scene. Explain your answer?