Topless Mum

Published Tuesday 3 June 2008 at 18:10 by Jeremy Austin

A well-constructed investigation into media manipulation rather than a two-hour tale of titillation awaits at the Tricycle with Ron Hutchinson’s provocatively titled play.

Media manipulation bends both ways and in this clever piece it certainly does - the army invalid and his wife manipulate a red-top reporter and her editor into the sort of prisoner abuse scandal that brought down Piers Morgan at the Mirror, and the way the red-top tries to manipulate its way out of it. If nothing else, it should be required viewing to young reporters as it is a lesson in listening to what is being said rather than filling in gaps in conversation.

Dialogue is stilted, never quite successfully being drawn off the page and into the mouths of the otherwise interesting characters, but the story twists and turns and overcomes any frailties in the writing.

Topless Mum is a play that has been through a number of rewrites and drafts but it appears at the Tricycle as a definite whole, aided by Caroline Hunt’s swift, seamless direction and Conor Murphy’s clever, simple set of a small revolving table, depicting scene changes, and a corrugated backdrop onto which relevant images are beamed.

Performances are adequate, although Sylvestra Le Touzel is strong and commanding as the army legal officer Kennedy. This is perhaps due to the strength and originality of Kennedy as a character - an idealistic, headstrong female army lawyer through whom Hutchinson is able to explore some novel themes.

Tiffany is the bright army wife who manipulates the press and again is a well-drawn multi-layered role, effectively explored by Louise Kempton.

The other characters don’t fare as well. Should there be more to the invalid soldier other than that he has been destroyed by the horrors of war? And editor Kyle and frankly naive reporter Annie are mere sketches - although Giles Fagan as Kyle spits out his characters bitter assassination of chav culture.

While it is wonderful to find a piece of new writing that relies so heavily on the plot, does it need to come at the expense of the strength of the characters?