A while back an email went around work entitled ‘Mixed Marriage’ which (funnily enough…) ended up becoming an increasingly crude email feed. But before you get images of some rather unsavoury goings on in my office it’s actually the name of a play running at the Finborough Theatre all month.
The venue is an assuming pub (actually it’s a ‘wine café’) just off the Old Brompton Road that on first look doesn’t indicate it has any performance space at all, although when we got there none of us minded as it has an excellent wine list that we proceeded to tuck into with relish. Tuesdays are the new Fridays (along with Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays).
Upstairs from the bar there is a tiny theatre space that only seats about 30 people on velvetine benches.
Typically, we were the last in after having had ‘just one more glass’ and ended up in the front row (basically on the stage). I was about half a metre from a rocking chair that ended up being the focal point of the first scene. But rather than being awkward it draws you in completely and utterly. There were points where you could have heard a pin drop. Because it is so charmingly intimate no one seemed to mind that things were a bit squashed or that bags needed to be deposited cleverly to avoid trip ups.
Mixed Marriage is set in Ireland before partition during a time of great religious and political turbulence.
As the city's factories come out on strike, John Rainey, the respected head of a Protestant family, acts to calm the religious tension being stirred up by politicians for their own ends. Out on the streets, he successfully unites Catholic and Protestant against the factory owners, the nationalists and the Orangemen. But behind closed doors it is a different story. Things become heated when Rainey discovers that his son wants to marry the beautiful, innocent Nora, a Catholic...
St John Ervine (the play write) deftly and cleverly dissects class and religious partitions through the breakdown of one ordinary family.
Don’t be put off by the serious subject matter - the play is an evocative tragedy but it’s interspersed with an earthy humour. I giggled more than a few times in the 85 minutes. I credit only two of these to the glasses of wine pre-performance.
The director, Sam Yates has managed to create some of human kinds strongest emotions in the small kitchen of a working class home so brimming with atmosphere you could almost be living there. Beautifully performed in a small, intimate space and with a wonderful cast (they count Holby City, The Magdalene Sisters, The Bill and A Midsummer Night’s Dream to their credits) it is so very worth a visit. And if that’s not enough to tempt you then the fab-u-lous wine list downstairs will.
Tuesday, 4 October – Saturday, 29 October 2011
Tickets £13-£15 - Book online now.
Caroline Gosney
Follow Caroline on Twitter
Caroline
Follow Caroline on Twitter
Follow