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Dirty Works
By Jenny Sandman
It's hard to know what to think about Dirty Works now playing at Greenwich Street Theatre. For starters, it's unremittingly British. Produced by Stiff Upper Lip, a British theatre company specializing in London exports this is the first world premiere by a British writer (that is, a play not first produced in England).
Both the writer, Jamie Linley, and the young cast show a lot of promise. But it's hard to assess a play with dialogue , that's hard to understand. The characters speak in very thick, almost impenetrable London slum accents and slang. Think Trainspotting without the Scottish burr, but not as interesting.
Lanky, played by the playwright (making his dual professional playwriting and acting debut), is a junkie dying of AIDS who sticks a young girl with one of his dirty needles and subsequently finds religion. The criminal under life mobilizes to get him. He's he's hospitalized, so they go after his friend Darren who's a harmless enough punk (as are his other druggie friends) who's gotten himself mixed up with the wrong crowd.
Drugs and sex are the currency in this part of London. It's a grim landscape, characterized by unrelieved poverty and misery.
Dirty Works is also a maze of characters and subplots that involve strippers, pimps, and drug lords. The plot is at times as hard to follow as the slang and thick accents.
The young and energetic cast, led by Victor Villar-Hauser as Darren, give good performances. Director Kevin Little does a serviceable job with the many scenes and locations but the pacing is slow. With a story line that's already depressing enough, the black-on-black set in this black box theater is definitely a buzzkill.
While Linley's a talented writer, there's just not a lot to work with here. There are a lot of plays and films about the UK's underworld, and frankly, the already mentioned Trainspotting did it better -- and if that didn't appeal to you, Dirty Works won't either.
It should be said that Stiff Upper Lip has a good reputation. Don't write off their future shows.
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DIRTY WORKS Written by Jamie Linley Directed by Kevin Kittle With Micky Campbell, Martin Ewens, Martin Hillier, Polly Lee, Jamie Linley, Aidan Redmond, Christine Rendel, Louise Traynor and Victor Villar-Hauser Set Design by Mark Symczak Sound Design by Susan Williams Lighting Design by Jerome J. Hoppe, Jr. Costume Design by Tina Nigro Running time: One hour and twenty-five minutes with no intermission Greenwich Street Theatre, 547 Greenwich Street; 212-352-3101. Wednesday through Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 3 pm. All tickets $15. 01/12/05 through 01/30/05; opening 1/23/05 Reviewed by Jenny Sandman based on January 20th performance |
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