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Small Change

Donmar Warehouse, West End
From: Thursday, 10th April 2008
To: Saturday, 31 May 2008

Our Review: starstarstarstar Your Reviews: starstar

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Synopsis

This disturbing, yet lyrical and poetic play is an emotional roller coaster through the lives of two working class Cardiff mothers and their sons, coping with the consequences of poverty and neglect over the last fifty years. It is a powerful evocation of our efforts to cope with the daily grind, the disappointments and the burdens we lay on our children.. It charts the turbulent emotional landscape of four characters trying to make sense of the present through their past experiences - with nothing but four chairs and a bare stage to aid them.

Our Review: starstarstarstar

16 April 2008

A perfect chamber play, ideally suited in a way most plays aren’t for the proportions and difficult sight-lines of the Donmar Warehouse, Peter Gill’s Small Change comes up a treat in the author’s production, his third since a remarkable premiere at the Royal Court in 1976 (the second was at the National in 1983).

That distant first night is still burned on my memory, but the new cast make the piece entirely their own. Two best friends on the East side of Cardiff after the last war, their respective mothers, and four chairs are the components. The characters are sculpted in an abstract landscape which designer Anthony Ward floods with red, a colour (like most colours) banished in the old Royal Court post-Brechtian era of austerity.

For all its simplicity, the play remains satisfyingly dense. The dialogue switches around in time, and the two boys, Gerard (Matt Ryan) and Vincent (Luke Evans), are seen at either end of their relationship, Vincent ...

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Latest User Review

rds - 31 May 2008: starstar

Ans that's generous, well we shouldn't blame the actors it's not their fault, they want to work and the Donmar is a prestigeous establisment, but WHY oh! WHY this turgid, tedious and patronising radio play. Is Peter Gill from a working class Cardiff background? I suspect not. It is certainly of it's time and should have stayed that way. I noticed, like someone else here, the looks on the faces of members of the audience and some of desperation as they waited what seemed an eternity for the interval and a chance to make a bolt for it! Better luck next time then?...

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Cast

Lindsey Coulson (Mrs Driscoll)
Luke Evans (Vincent)
Sue Johnston (Mrs Harte)
Matt Ryan (Gerard)

Creative

Peter Gill (Author)
Donmar Warehouse (Producer)
Peter Gill (Director)
Anthony Ward (Design)
Hugh Vanstone (Lighting)

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