Brimstone and Treacle
From: Wednesday, 2nd May 2012
To: Saturday, 2 June 2012
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Synopsis
The play centres on Mr and Mrs Bates, a middle-aged, middle-class, North London suburban couple are struggling to care for their only daughter, Pattie, left severely disabled following a hit-and-run car accident. Out of nowhere, an apparently respectable young man arrives on their doorstep to change their lives forever...
Our Review:
8 May 2012
Brimstone and Treacle is Dennis Potter's own Entertaining Mr Sloane but where the interloper in Joe Orton's 1964 comedy draws the line at seduction, Potter's notoriously extends to the rape of a brain-damaged, bed-ridden young woman.
Little wonder that the BBC which commissioned Brimstone and Treacle in 1976 deemed it “nauseating” and shelved it for a decade. Potter re-wrote it for the stage and it was staged at the Crucible, Sheffield the following year. A film version starring Sting in the central role was released in 1982.
It is 1977 and Britain is gearing up for the Queen's silver jubilee. The polite and handsome young Martin Taylor (Rupert Friend) turns up on the suburban doorstop of Mr and Mrs Bates (Ian Redford and Tessa Peake-Jones) claiming to be a former boyfriend of their daughter Pattie (Matti Houghton).
Unable to communicate or perform any basic tasks for herself since a hit-and-run accident two years a...
Latest User Review
steveatplays - 23 May 2012:
Rupert Friend is devilish in this, and frequently breaks the fourth wall to nod and wink to the audience, making them complicit in his devilry. And of course, it's not very pleasant to be complicit in a plot to rape a girl with disabilities. But the acting is all round spot on, with Tessa Peake-Jones' naive frustrated mother figure (named "Mumsy" by the devilish interloper, Martin, played by Friend) and Ian Redford's tightlipped angry bigoted father figure utterly convincing in their disfunction and unhappiness. Friend is wonderful too and this horrible tale unfolds compellingly as Friend's Martin unravels the household he has set his sights on pillaging. The outcome of all this disfunction and devilry is intriguing, and the Arcola has definitely come up with a relevant and worthwhile revival for Jubilee year....
Creative
Dennis Potter (Author)
SEArED (in association with Arcola Theatre) (Producer)
Amelia Sears (Director)
Alex Eales (Design)
Richard Howell (Lighting)
Elena Pena (Sound)
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