The Stage

Speaking in Tongues

Published Tuesday 29 September 2009 at 12:55 by Scott Matthewman

At the heart of Andrew Bovell’s darkly structured play is how even the thought of infidelity can unravel into full-scale guilt if we let it, and that relationships tend innately to self-destruct unless we spend sufficient time on the difficult job of stopping them.

John Simm and Ian Hart start out as two sides of a coin, each as a husband attracted to the prospect of an affair until one yields and the other does not. As the first act unfolds, revealing that each was tempted by the other’s wife, the audience is granted more insight than the characters in ways that enhance the actors’ portrayal. Overlapping dialogue helps to emphasise the lives that, because they are not quite parallel, are destined to converge.

It is in the second act that, as we jump back in time and see more of the tales Simm and Hart have previously told their respective partners, the real emotional tone of the piece begins to emerge. With a sense of noir thriller that wilfully never resolves itself on stage, the lack of definite answers - indeed, of definite questions - ensures this is a production that will provoke discussion long after the final curtain.

The sparse staging by designer Ben Stones works in perfect conjunction with the cast, who each have to portray multiple characters among the rubble of self-destructive lives. Enhanced by Johanna Town’s subtle lighting cues and Lorna Heavey’s effective use of back projection in the climactic second act, it is Hart who stands out among his three fellow accomplished actors to produce a heart-stopping, heart-breaking piece of theatre.