REVIEWS: MULL THEATRE

September 2003

© MARK FISHER published in Hi-Arts Journal

KIDNAPPED

Perth Theatre

THIS ADAPTATION of the Robert Louis Stevenson thriller has come in for some criticism because of its design. And I'd agree with some other reviewers that Robin Peoples has devised one of those clever sets that are better in theory than in practice. It's a number of curved wooden boxes that fit inside each other and open up to form a whole variety of exteriors, interiors and landscapes. One minute it's a stately home, the next it's a ship at sea.

So far, so ingenious, but it has two shortcomings. One is that it takes time to rearrange the pieces, slowing the pace of the performance. The other is that it restricts the actors' space for creativity: the designer has done all the imaginative work for them.

But that's not entirely the problem in this co-production by Perth Theatre and Mull Theatre. Peoples' set does, at least, reconfigure itself quite efficiently. It's more to do with the adaptation by Robert Paterson and Alasdair McCrone. They have, of course, charged themselves with a fearsome task: to condense into a couple of hours this epic adventure about the young David Balfour and his attempt to claim his inheritance, hampered by abduction, clan warfare and the Scottish landscape.

But their version of the story is uneven. It veers between scenes that are so short they're over by the time you've worked out what's going on and others that are dragged down by long and undramatic exposition. It makes for a bumpy ride.

The result is that ideas that should have given the evening a theatrical spark - such as the set and the continued presence of John Davidson on violin - start to seem fussy and uneconomical. Things aren't helped by Simon Sewell's gloomy lighting design that casts most faces - and some whole scenes - in shadow.

I'd like to say that the large and spirited company of actors rises above these distractions but, such is the nature of adaptations for the stage, few of them have parts big enough to get their teeth into. Andrew Clark does bring a fair swagger to the role of Alan Stewart, the lawless clan chief, but there's little tension when playing against David Fitzgerald's uncharismatic interpretation of Balfour. The character might be naive, stuck up and conservative, but that shouldn't account for so flat a performance.

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