reviews
excerpts
from
time
out
plays
& players
the
stage & television today
"Tender
and Eugen, two barely grown-up thirtysomethings, obliterate their senses
in Amsterdam while 'researching' for their screenplay. Following
his code 'It Doesn't Count on Tour', father-to-be Tender sleeps with beautiful
publicist Willow, the upshot of which is an HIV infection...
Sebastian
Michael's play 'about life on the edge of the century is stirring, prophetic
stuff...insightful and moving... there's the explosive confrontation between
Tender's wife, Jo, and Willow - Jo choking on her anger, Willow doggedly
calm and philosophical; and the tragic, draining confession scene between
the broken, childlike Tender and an earth-shattered yet formidable Jo (Juliet
Moore). Eugen (a gently camp Richard Stemp) is a self-confessed metaphor
maniac... fallible yet admirable characters."
"...the
Southwark Playhouse has picked up a pearl... 'The Power of Love'
is
about young people in the nineties grappling with sex, careers, drugs and
AIDS, but it does not exhibit the soulless banality of so many plays with
these themes. This is 'Shopping and Fucking' with more humour and
more heart...
the
plot meanders and teases while always keeping an assured grip on the audience's
attention: black comedy, tragedy, poetry, soap opera and philosophy jostle
joyfully together...
'The
Power of Love' draws authenticity from the strength of its characterisation...
The friendship between the two main male characters, Tender and Eugen,
is the engine that powers the play. It is quirky but absolutely believable
and, as an unashamedly emotional portrayal of male love...ventures into
relatively unexplored theatrical territory."
"The
play, shortlisted for a Verity Bargate award became ineligible with the
opening of this fringe production. But it reveals a playmaker with
an assured grasp of theatrical mood, as his plot moves seamlessly from
buddy bonding, through romantic comedy to gut-wrenching melo-drama, ending
with Maupin-esqe touchy-feely charm in a back garden somewhere in London.
Richard
Stemp makes an impressive London debut [sic] as Eugen, a man with
the twin gifts of second sight and friendship, whose wit and calm presence
give the production its dramatic continuity. In particular his arias
on the horrors of the EU and Beethoven's cruel deafness are superbly achieved.
Fine
support comes from Gary Grant as an Arkansas juve and James Dillinger as
a back-packer from Oz, whose finesse as a silent Dutch waiter also catches
the eye."
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