We are in Boston, Massachusetts in 1980, and this courtroom drama (appertaining to a high profile medical negligence incident in 1976), keeps you guessing and gripped throughout. Written by Barry Reed, an presented by Middle Ground Theatre Company (currently touring the UK), this play - based on the film starring Paul Newman - is solidly and convincingly acted from a very large cast.
There is intrigue right from the start as we see a down-on-his-luck lawyer who drinks too much go from strength to strength as he realises that he is basically being paid-off by the Defence in order to cover up the truth. In the role of lawyer Frank Galvin is Jason Merrells, whose onstage journey is a considerable one, and he presents a very real and flawed human with his nuanced and considered characterisation. The rest of the 15 performers (some of whom play more than one role) are no less convincing, and the performers are uniformly strong and realistic throughout.
There are two points however, upon which this play, at least as watched this evening, falls down somewhat. The first, and most major being the lack of volume. The Floral Pavilion is not a small theatre and despite the cast's best efforts to project their voices (some with more success than others), some more amplification was most definitely needed. Many of the audience around me commented similarly during the interval. A piece of scenery (a wall) was flown in at one point, and those acting in front of this were automatically more easily heard due to the 'wall' creating a sound barrier and allowing the voices to flow over the audience and not back into the vastness of the stage and rafters. Ground level stick mics were in place during the second act I noticed, but even then, these proved insufficient. [and a rather annoying flickering footlight bulb made itself known during these scenes too!]
The second thing which would help this play enormously, in this reviewer's humble opinion, is a little more pace. The play was performed at more or less the same speed from start to finish, and that speed was walking pace. Perhaps that's realistic, but does not really make it an interesting watch, especially when there is little else for us to appreciate. {no sfx or dancing girls....!} The sets were good, but were static in both acts (practically), and yet the scene changes were too long in being executed. Whilst the vocal dynamics were (had we been able to hear them sufficiently) generally well placed, the actual physical dynamics never changed.
However, my concerns notwithstanding, director Michael Lunney has created a quasi-realistic arena in which these believable and interesting characters people, and Reed's script is very well written and will keep you engaged and speculating until the final moments.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 7.2.23
on - 7.2.23
A fair review. Stick mikes were there in act 1 too, but one wouldn’t have known as the actors could not be heard. (And I was near the front).
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