Small Craft Warnings

Synopsis

Set in a seedy Southern California coastal bar. A doctor that has been barred from the profession because of his drinking, Bill the loser stud, Violet the vulnerable young thing, Quentin the washed up dandy screenwriter and Bobby the young farm boy he picked up on the side of the road - all of which are framed by Monk the steadfast bartender and Leona, a trailer park beautician celebrating the death of her gay violinist brother.

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Janet Polson - 9 October 2008:

The small craft of the title of this play by Tennessee Williams are not the boats whose owners are being advised of the presence of dense fog on the coast of southern California but the individuals who have found a haven in Monk's Place, the bar where the action is set. Many of the characters are not, on the face of things, the nicest of people and, especially since the play gives them every opportunity to describe the banality and purposeless of their lives and to demonstrate the worst sides of their natures, it might seem impossible that an audience could ever empathise with them. That this is not in fact the case is partly because the bar owner, Monk, looks on his regular clients as his family and, whilst he shows annoyance when they cause trouble in his bar, his sympathy for them almost invariably wins out and enables us to see them in a more positive light as well. But the main reason why we find ourselves caring about them is that they tell us about themselves directly, through monologues, something that automatically creates a greater sense of involvement with them than would have existed otherwise. It also enables us to understand, to a greater degree than most of them do themselves, just how lonely, vulnerable and unhappy they are. The play is being staged at the Arcola, in a studio setting which has seats on three sides of, and very close to, Hayden Griffin's atmospheric set, and which is perfectly suited to creating the play's necessary air of intimacy between the actors and the audience. The production is also very well served by its ensemble, in which there is no weak link, with fine performances coming from (amongst others) Jack Shepherd as Monk, John Nolan as the drunken Doc (who has lost his license to practice) and Sian Thomas as the "trailer trash" Leona, whilst even the character with the smallest part – Tony, a cop – comes vividly to life thanks to the aptness of the few lines the author has given him and the quality of James Hutchinson's portrayal. And for a brief but telling interlude, the bar's regulars are joined by two gay strangers, one of whom – Quentin, a screenwriter – is generally accepted as being a thinly disguised portrait of the author himself. In a typically wonderful performance, Greg Hicks brilliantly evinces Quentin's self-loathing, and his world-weary disillusionment, even as he sits silently at a table. He then holds the audience in thrall with his superb delivery of Quentin's monologue, in which the character describes how his sexual experiences have so deadened him to life's other sensations that he is no longer capable of being surprised. Quentin then leaves the play as he entered it, still the outsider Tennessee Williams evidently felt himself to be. Between them the play and Bill Bryden's excellent production make for an absorbing evening – I strongly urge you to catch this show if you can. ...

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