The Handyman.

A perfect summer day in the English countryside. Cressida and Julian Field live in Cressida’s old family home, tended by the old family retainer, Romka. Julian is earning more than a crust as a dealer in the City, while Cressida is working for a degree in gender studies, and the largest cloud on their horizon seems to be the recent death of their cat. However the idyll is soon to come crashing round their ears when the police intrude on the peaceful scene. Recent legislation has put old Romka under investigation for possible war crimes.

So begins a searing but deeply compassionate examination of some of the terrible things that human beings do to each other. Where do these impulses come from? How do we live with the knowledge? Should we seek retribution? The questions tumble over themselves. After the casting reading we lingered a long time, discussing the implications of the play, and each rehearsal throws up more and more interesting and subtle questions.

I have a particular interest in the topic, as my daughter and her husband are presently working in Rwanda, helping with some of the problems left by the recent genocide. My son in law specialises in human rights and war crimes, and was impressed by the script of The Handyman, thinking it covered the vast complexity of moral, legal and personal issues with both depth and subtlety.

Neither is the question of war crimes a subject we can complacently consign to the past. At this very moment perpetrators from Bosnia are being tried at the International Court, investigations are beginning in old Soviet republics of Stalinist purges of alleged Nazi collaborators, and we ourselves are preparing for war with a brutal dictator on what may be a rather shaky pretext. Does the law give us hope for the future? Will atrocities be lessened by perpetrators knowing they may well be brought to book for their crimes? Let us hope so.

Although The Handyman is a serious play confronting us with a harrowing situation, it promises to be far from a dreary night out. It challenges both the intellect and the emotions of the audience, drawing them into the disintegrating worlds of the sympathetic and sometimes humorous characters and taking everyone on a disturbing journey of self discovery. It is proving to be one of the most exciting and provocative plays I have ever worked on.

We are also breaking new ground, for us, with the venue. This time, 7:30pm April 24-26, we are playing the Ashton Theatre, Shrewsbury School (tickets £7 (£6) from Caroline Frost ( 01743 280810), which has a larger stage, more seats and…..parking space!!! Do join us for an exhilarating night out.

Janine Clarke.

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....Dispatches from the Front Row.

Acting is a strange pastime. Grown up people pretending to be something else, just like kids. For it to work it has to seem at the time as if the fate of the world depended entirely on your efforts, yet your rational mind suspects that it is all merely frivolous self indulgence. However, it is great fun. And what is more, it’s a great drug factory. All those chemicals swirling through the system produce a great high. But the downside is the mornings after. Weeks after a show can be lost, flat and aimless, the pathetic survivors wandering in a daze, looking for another fix.

So – here we are again. In response to the desperate pleas of the cast of She Stoops to Conquer I scoured the playlists and came up with The Handyman, by Ronald Harwood. A very different kettle of fish from She Stoops!

Ronald Harwood is an interesting writer who has worked in a multiplicity of fields. Most theatregoers will recognise him as the author of The Dresser, a scathing, yet at the same time affectionate, portrait of an old style classical actor, said to have been based on Donald Wolfit, of whom he also wrote a biography.

His love of the theatre is reflected in much of his work, both books and television scripts, and includes the TV All the World’s a Stage, the Faber Book of the Theatre and works on John Gielgud and Alec Guiness.

He also has a long list of works of fiction, but probably his greatest link with the public will be in his role as a film script writer, although this is one which is rarely lauded, Hollywood being what it is. Among many other films he is responsible for A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The Browning Version.

This very week his latest film goes on general release in England, and has already been awarded the Palme d’Or at Cannes. The Pianist, directed by Roman Polanski, returns to a theme which, as a South African Jew, runs through a lot of his work: the Holocaust, and political and individual responsibility.

And so we come to what is presently exercising our minds and imaginations:

DIARY
The director Janine Clarke is keeping a rehearsal diary so that people can share the delights of what goes in to producing a play for theatre guild.

Feb 24 ‘03
Delighted last night to see Polanski’s ‘The Pianist’, scripted by RONALD HARWOOD, winning the BAFTA Award for Best Film. Do hope this might encourage more people to see ‘The Handyman’, as it is so relevant and apposite to the present situation, with the threat of war hanging over us all. Perhaps we may even be in the middle of one by the time we get the play on. A dreadful thought. But then we might be in even greater need of the compassionate questioning of the play. Rehearsals are provoking a great deal of discussion amongst us all. Not just the usual questions about character, motivation and situation which are the simple mechanics of getting a play to work, but the larger questions of how people are brought to the point of committing acts of atrocity, and how do you, and others, live with the knowledge. Is justice, reparation, forgiveness possible? These, and so many more, questions keep rolling round the head, yet I find myself being constantly surprised by Harwood’s compassionate view of the characters who embody the various attitudes. He himself is Jewish, and one would have understood if his pen had been loaded with more vitriol. Instead, despite the horror and shocking conclusions, there is a quiet insistence on the humanity of the characters. Has this something to do with him also being South African? Listening to Judge Albie Sachs, another South African Jew, talking this morning about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, I could not help making connections. Meanwhile, on with sorting the rehearsal schedule. It would be so much easier if we were all pros, and could just take three or four weeks to do the job. Instead there are jobs, families, illnesses, appointments etc etc etc to be worked round to get everyone together in very limited time. Then we have the great imaginative exercise of creating the atmosphere of a summer garden in a freezing village hall , feeding the meter and clutching mugs of hot coffee to ourselves. I often think we must be crazy. Still, it keeps us happy, and off the streets. I could use a Production Assistant. Anyone out there interested? It entails turning up to every rehearsal and being on the book – for which you need to be both sensitive and bold, with good concentration. It is interesting being in on the process though(or at least I find it so. But then, I am a rehearsal junkie, so maybe that’s not a very good measure!) .