The Poison Maker

Published Tuesday 7 February 2006 at 17:15 by Zoe Green

There is something comforting about plays set at the turn of the last century - the predictability of the set, the delicious thrill of those high necked blouses, the suggestive shrieking of the violins. But there is nothing comfortable or comforting about John Symonds’ curious yet elegantly artful script, nor about the play’s subject matter (incest). When Pansy and Tegg have a passionate affair, the result is Felix. Tegg wants to make an honest woman of Pansy but she will have none of it. Tegg instead marries icy, repressed Florence and they live in a state of agonised watchfulness until Felix turns up, 20 years later and it is as if a dam has been broken.

Susie Anton is excellent as the excitable, garrulous Anna who falls immediately in love with her new half-brother. Eva Gray and Vicki Carpenter as Pansy and Florence, are equally enthralling, while James Oliver Wheatley is suitably dissolute as Felix. The script loses some of its freshness in the second half and both Pansy and Florence develop irritating high-pitched (supposedly girlish?) laughs, while Felix’s lines are increasingly suffixed with an Antipodean “yeah?”.

It also becomes apparent that the traditional set is too clunky for the stage (there are too many scene changes) and this adds to the sense that the cast is too large for this stage. Despite this, a curious and engaging play.