I read this play “back in the day” – when I was in my twenties – and had long wanted to see this Cocteau classic performed.
So when the Gate Theatre, one of our favourite places, announced that it would be producing this play, I was one of the first in metaphorical line to snap up tickets.
Here is a link to the Gate Theatre resource for this play/production.
When this play was first written, the telephone was a relatively novel medium, so the piece will have been seen as exploratory – what might it sound like to be a fly on the wall hearing one side of a telephone conversation between lovers whose relationship has very recently broken down?
Of course, these days you only have to travel on public transport or sit in a cafe to eavesdrop on one side of such conversations all the time. Perhaps with that contemporary reality in mind, this production is performed with a mobile phone, bringing in additional opportunities for call interruption business while eliminating the potential for existential telephone chord business.
Also, to accentuate the theatrical “fly on the wall” sensation, the action took place inside a room-like windowed booth which we, the audience, observed from two sides. The photos below illustrate how that looked, from our seats, before the actress appeared. We all wore headphones to hear the actress as she might sound talking into a telephone. For this play, done this way, I think these touches worked.
Leanne Best did a grand job as the grief and panic-stricken woman who is the only visible and audible character in this play.
Janie concluded that the man was a piece of shit who was trying to drive the woman to suicide. That was not my reading of the play back then nor of this production of it.
We both thought this was a cracking good piece of drama- perhaps too good for us on a Friday evening when we were both tired and not really desirous of being gripped by the emotional throat.
We thought very highly of the production – if you are reading this while the run is still on, you might need to book early to avoid disappointment.