The Shawl

Published Wednesday 7 May 2008 at 13:00 by Jeremy Austin

David Mamet’s intriguing four-act play examining the power of belief systems and the nature of truth is telling people what they need to hear - preferable from the reality.

It is, if course, delivered in Mamet’s distinctive style, but Calvitto, under Emma Taylor’s smooth direction, uses this wisely. He opts for the sing-song, rhythmic delivery, while playing the initially charlatan psychic, John, telling his client what she wants to hear, and then delivering in a more naturalistic style when explaining to his lover and charge Charles the tricks of his trade.

The effect is to emphasise the bogus nature of his character’s skill, to highlight the idea that this psychic business is all an act. Opposite, Scarlett Strallen as Miss A - one of Mamet’s desperately underwritten female characters - can scarcely get a word in. She remains a foil throughout the production, a far cry from her recent appearance as Mary Poppins in the West End blockbuster.

The intimacy of the Canal Cafe helps the piece, drawing us into the intensity of the relationship between the psychic and his willingly gullible customer. Christine Osbourne’s set is simple, yet nods towards the trappings of our cliches when thinking of psychics - all lace and dark wood.

That said, it is not perhaps quite as intense and engaging as it could be, but remains a perfectly reasonable production of a Mamet oddity.