Midnight Cowboy

Published Thursday 10 August 2006 at 12:35 by Thom Dibdin

John Clancy has brought a strongly cinematic sensibility to Tim Fountain’s adaptation of Herlihy’s novel for the stage. It’s not merely in what is almost an establishing shot - Charles Aitken’s Joe Buck blue-lit from above with his naked back to the audience in rippling-muscled, cheesecake pose - but in the quick fire cutting of the scenes as Joe’s journey from Texas to New York is revealed and his downfall as a hustler unfurls.

Unfortunately it is the technical difficulty of delivering that speed which lets the production down. Clancy is a master at creating scenes with great dynamic purpose, the theatrical equivalent of a steady cam as he follows Joe along the street, or the stages of a bus journey. But with so many different locations in New York to trundle on and off the stage, Richard Foxton’s otherwise good looking design comes between audience and show.

The overall lack of flow is so great that you begin to wonder what it is all about. And with Aitken bringing little more than dumb blondness to Joe, it is up to supporting cast and the construction of the scenes to provide their import. Emma Kennedy as upmarket prostitute, Cas, creates an overtly enthusiastic sex scene before hustling Joe. Sam Crane as the student who Joe allows to suck him off in the cinema toilets, says much more about self-disgust.

It is Con O’Neill whose arrival on stage provides the backbone to a production that is rapidly slipping away. His Ratso wheedles his way into his dominating position. A man crippled in more than his leg who has fallen over the edges of society. It is a cleverly constructed performance which sucks you in without hogging the stage.

Elsewhere, Todd Boyce, David Calvitto, Victoria Lennox and Nancy Walsh put in strong supporting performances as they people the metropolis. Philip Gladwell’s lighting design is functionally effective. If Damian Coldwell’s sound design is equally functional, using the radio which Joe keeps constantly to hand to great effect, his use of Bob Dylan songs really catches the down-beat mood of a piece that entertains but still under achieves.