No Remission
Moderator: Germangirl
No Remission
Hammersmith's Lyric Theatre. No Remission, with the Midnight Theatre Company.
Tough prison drama where a bank robber, a double murderer and a paratrooper who's torn someone's ribcage open would be forced to share a cell. Craig would play the soldier, cold and carrying himself with military precision until he cracks when his cell-mates reveal that Christabelle, the girl he adores, is no more than a common tart. It was a great success, for Daniel in particular, The Independent review saying that he "contains his violence like an unexploded mine".
THEATRE / No Remission - Lyric Studio, London W6
GEORGINA BROWN
Friday, 24 July 1992
We're all in this together,' says Victor (a bank robber) to his two fellow jailbirds (killers), in a quasi refrain which smatters through Rod Williams' play. You want to believe it - comradeship would appear to be the single comfort in an otherwise relentlessly brutal prison existence - but the more he says it the hollower it sounds. What this play forcefully dramatises is that 'togetherness' can only be applied ironically to the cramped, dehumanising physical conditions. In such a hostile environment the individual's impulse for personal survival obliterates the humanity that friendship demands; trust has no place where suspicion is instinctive. Clearly Williams enjoys draining words of their disparate meanings, and the play's title gets a similar going over: as one prisoner learns that he will not be given official Remission, another discovers that there can be no remission from the hell that is prison, and none from the solitary hell that is himself.
The playwright has obviously done his homework and displays a fine ear for jailbird argot (nicely plumbed with the men's unwittingly witty absurdities) as well as a good feel for the shape (the siege outside the cell heightens the tension of the siege-mentality within) and pace of a drama. But it is his handling of the many layers of fiction that each man wraps around himself both to keep a terrible truth at bay and to manipulate his relationships that impresses most and keeps everyone guessing to the last appalling moment. In the first preview, however, the combination of the speed, density and aggression was too winding. Nevertheless, director Derek Wax has drawn ferocious performances from a distinguished cast. Pip Donaghy exudes wheedling dishonesty (recalling Pinter's infamous caretaker Davis); Daniel Craig contains his violence like an unexploded mine; Rob Spendlove's jagged frustration reveals a savagely damaged psyche. A debut of great promise.
Continues at the Lyric Studio, W6 (081-741 8701) to 15 August.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-enter ... 35117.html
Tough prison drama where a bank robber, a double murderer and a paratrooper who's torn someone's ribcage open would be forced to share a cell. Craig would play the soldier, cold and carrying himself with military precision until he cracks when his cell-mates reveal that Christabelle, the girl he adores, is no more than a common tart. It was a great success, for Daniel in particular, The Independent review saying that he "contains his violence like an unexploded mine".
THEATRE / No Remission - Lyric Studio, London W6
GEORGINA BROWN
Friday, 24 July 1992
We're all in this together,' says Victor (a bank robber) to his two fellow jailbirds (killers), in a quasi refrain which smatters through Rod Williams' play. You want to believe it - comradeship would appear to be the single comfort in an otherwise relentlessly brutal prison existence - but the more he says it the hollower it sounds. What this play forcefully dramatises is that 'togetherness' can only be applied ironically to the cramped, dehumanising physical conditions. In such a hostile environment the individual's impulse for personal survival obliterates the humanity that friendship demands; trust has no place where suspicion is instinctive. Clearly Williams enjoys draining words of their disparate meanings, and the play's title gets a similar going over: as one prisoner learns that he will not be given official Remission, another discovers that there can be no remission from the hell that is prison, and none from the solitary hell that is himself.
The playwright has obviously done his homework and displays a fine ear for jailbird argot (nicely plumbed with the men's unwittingly witty absurdities) as well as a good feel for the shape (the siege outside the cell heightens the tension of the siege-mentality within) and pace of a drama. But it is his handling of the many layers of fiction that each man wraps around himself both to keep a terrible truth at bay and to manipulate his relationships that impresses most and keeps everyone guessing to the last appalling moment. In the first preview, however, the combination of the speed, density and aggression was too winding. Nevertheless, director Derek Wax has drawn ferocious performances from a distinguished cast. Pip Donaghy exudes wheedling dishonesty (recalling Pinter's infamous caretaker Davis); Daniel Craig contains his violence like an unexploded mine; Rob Spendlove's jagged frustration reveals a savagely damaged psyche. A debut of great promise.
Continues at the Lyric Studio, W6 (081-741 8701) to 15 August.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-enter ... 35117.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-enter ... 37640.html
ROBERT BUTLER
Sunday, 2 August 1992
At the Lyric, Hammersmith, two murderers and a burglar shelter in the same cell during a breakout in a maximum-security wing. In the violent shifts that follow, the prisoners break down each other's defences and deliver painful home truths. No Remission, a first play by 28-year-old Rod Williams, strips its characters with the heat of a blow-torch. The idea that the fiancee is waiting faithfully, or that the crime was an accident, or that the prisoner is the victim of an administrative error are just a few of the illusions the characters slip into along with the shapeless prison jeans.
White lines mark out the narrow playing area that contains a table, two chairs and a bed. They also mark out the territory of the writing. For Williams digs deep rather than ranging wide. The real stories are extracted, against howls of protest, like rotten teeth.
Director Derek Wax keeps this rollercoaster on track, finding the highs and lows, and drawing out urgent, detailed performances from the cast of three. Daniel Craig plays the Bible-reading ex- soldier, who's only an hour up the motorway from his fiancee. Pip Donaghy gives Victor the burglar the weak, shifty bluff of a George Cole. As Derry, Robin Spendlove paces the stage with a boxer's pent-up aggression. After facing up to the identity of his victim, he blows his nose on his sweaty, blood-stained vest and then smashes up his cell.
Williams's high-adrenalin dialogue favours the crossfire of emotions under stress. The language is soaked in prison slang, but questions about the nature and progress of the breakout, or the more mundane horrors of life inside, go unexamined.
ROBERT BUTLER
Sunday, 2 August 1992
At the Lyric, Hammersmith, two murderers and a burglar shelter in the same cell during a breakout in a maximum-security wing. In the violent shifts that follow, the prisoners break down each other's defences and deliver painful home truths. No Remission, a first play by 28-year-old Rod Williams, strips its characters with the heat of a blow-torch. The idea that the fiancee is waiting faithfully, or that the crime was an accident, or that the prisoner is the victim of an administrative error are just a few of the illusions the characters slip into along with the shapeless prison jeans.
White lines mark out the narrow playing area that contains a table, two chairs and a bed. They also mark out the territory of the writing. For Williams digs deep rather than ranging wide. The real stories are extracted, against howls of protest, like rotten teeth.
Director Derek Wax keeps this rollercoaster on track, finding the highs and lows, and drawing out urgent, detailed performances from the cast of three. Daniel Craig plays the Bible-reading ex- soldier, who's only an hour up the motorway from his fiancee. Pip Donaghy gives Victor the burglar the weak, shifty bluff of a George Cole. As Derry, Robin Spendlove paces the stage with a boxer's pent-up aggression. After facing up to the identity of his victim, he blows his nose on his sweaty, blood-stained vest and then smashes up his cell.
Williams's high-adrenalin dialogue favours the crossfire of emotions under stress. The language is soaked in prison slang, but questions about the nature and progress of the breakout, or the more mundane horrors of life inside, go unexamined.
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Guess, if JEC doesn't have it in her treasure grove, we are pretty lost. :dunno.cheryl1700 wrote:Any one got any pics of daniel in No Remission, no worries just asking on the extreme off chance that someone has, thanks
The top notch acting in the Weisz/Craig/Spall 'Betrayal' is emotionally true, often v funny and its beautifully staged with filmic qualities..
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