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A CurtainUp London London Review
Small Change



On whose face did my grin start on? On whose face will it end?.— Gerard
Small Change
Luke Evans, Lindsey Coulson, Sue Johnston and Matt Ryan (Photo:Johan Persson)
Peter Gill directs a revival of his 1976 play Small Change about two families set in Cardiff in the 1950s. Two boys grow up next to each other and share details of their daily life. We meet only the boys and their dominant mothers but we hear about everybody their life touches. Gill's structure is to play four chairs centre stage and initially to let each character speak as an individual in four separate solilioquies. Only later do these characters exchange conversation with each other. He weaves back and forth in time

Gill's prose is poetic as he paints word pictures, rich anecdotal tapestries of a bygone age, the 1950s where women addressed each as Mrs This and Mrs That rather than by their first names. The younger woman, Mrs Driscoll (Lindsey Coulson) confides in the older woman about her drunken husband. She says poignantly, "If only he loved me, I'd be alright." and describes how she followed him into town to the entrance of the Park Hotel but could go no further. Why? Because she isn't wearing stockings and to enter the hotel not wearing stockings is unthinkable. Whereas Vincent's (Luke Evans) mother Mrs Driscoll worries about her unfaithful and violent husband, Mrs Harte (Sue Johnston) is stressed about her son Gerard (Matt Ryan), "this swine of a kid" she expresses her frustration with the perverse boy.

The play is rich on imagery but in places limited in terms of action, depending as it does on the lyricism and verbalisation of emotion. There were times when I thought it might be better suited to the concentration that radio plays can afford the listener. As well as those detailed observations of nature around the tidal estuary, from the train, the red of berries in the September hedgerows, or the "radio with pleated pink silk behind the fretwork" there are those sardonic comments from Mrs Harte— matter of fact and spot on in their accuracy describing working class life, "It's not as if we've got a drop of brandy. It's terrible to be poor." I am very fond of Mrs Harte and some of her spirited and colourful observations after she has been criticised for having her hair cut, "Where in the Bible does it say what length your crowning glory should be?" However neither portrait of the women is particularly sympathetic to these hard working housewives.

One of the women shockingly commits suicide by pouring acid down her throat. The boys grow up and one leaves. Vincent works at the dock and stays, Gerard joins the Air Force and when they meet later they realise they have let their friendship falter and with it their chance of homoerotic passion. One is full of resentment, hurt and upset. Gill's play is full of regret and nostalgia brought to life by some very fine performances.

Small Change
Written and directed by Peter Gill

Starring: Sue Johnston
With: Lindsey Coulson, Luke Evans, Matt Ryan
Design: Anthony Ward
Lighting: Hugh Vanstone
Running time: One hour 55 minutes including one interval
Box Office: 0870 060 6624
Booking to 31st May 2008
Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 18th April 2008 performance at The Donmar Warehouse, Earlham Street, London WC2 (Tube: Covent Garden)
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