TWO by Jim Cartwright
What the papers say about UKTT's production
of TWO
“If you only intend going to the theatre once this
year – then make sure that TWO is the one thing
you go to see! If you intend going more than once
then make sure that you see this at least twice!”
“This production is truly unmissable theatre – even
for those who regard themselves as non-theatre
goers!”
“Dominic Gray and Libby Machin create a stunning
array of characters and encapsulate
a wide range
of emotions. Two riveting performances which
become totally addictive.”
“This was everyman theatre with characters you
could all too well imagine encountering in a setting
no one could fail to relate to and it blew me away”
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What the papers say about TWO
1990 - Manchester Evening News Theatre Award for Best New Play
“This extraordinary gifted and original voice….populates the space with broad humour, dry wit and often shudderingly moving poetry”
“A sharp, salty, quickfire evocation of the surface gaiety and underlying melancholia
of English pub life”
“Brilliantly, surrealistically and comically poetic”
“Jim Cartwright is one of the mavericks of British theatre”
Reviews Of TWO Starring UKTT's Dominic Gray and Libby Machin:
Settle Festival of Theatre - "TWO" by Jim Cartwright
G O'Donnell - Lancaster Guardian & Country News
"If you only intend going to the theatre once this year – then make sure that "TWO" is the one thing you go to see! If you intend going more than once then make sure that you see this at least twice! The more you watch it the more you'll see in it.
The real joy of "TWO" is that it is not just a play for theatre-buffs -although they will undoubtedly enjoy it also – but also for anyone who has ever sat in a bar and caught odd snippets of conversation or observed people and wondered how they came to be there. In short it is a play for ordinary people about ordinary events on an ordinary night in
an ordinary pub – but what makes it extraordinary is the skill with which the events
are juxtaposed by the writer and the dynamic way they are brought to life by two very
skilful actors.
Jim Cartwright was born, and continues to live, in Lancashire and in "TWO" he has caught both the humour and sadness of one night in a Northern pub. The play is designed so that two people play all the characters with both the bar paraphernalia and other people in the bar being mimed. This creates a tremendous challenge for the two actors as they not only play the landlord and landlady but also a whole variety of customers who pass through the bar that evening.
Both Dominic Gray and Libby Machin are more than equal to this task and manage to create a stunning array of characters and encapsulate a wide range of emotions. There are moments of great poignancy in the speech of the old man reminiscing over his long dead wife and tenderly evoking her memory and great humour in the relationship between the ageing Lothario Moth and his partner Maudie and in the contrast between fantasy and reality in the marriage of the Igers.
Then there is the old woman trapped in her relationship with an increasingly ill husband with only her visits to the butcher and a drink in the evening to relief her burden of constant care. Meanwhile Lesley is locked into an impossible submissive role with the obsessively jealous Roy whereas Fred and Alice are content with their gentle love for
one another and lost in their world of TV and Elvis. And observing it all are the Landlord and Landlady, part of the scene but also locked in their own private world while continually putting on an act for the punters.
At times the act becomes very obviously brittle and the mask slips to show the real
pain behind the smiles, however it is not until the final moving scene that the truth
is revealed to the audience. This alone is worth the price of admission – two riveting performances that become totally addictive, as the audience is held spellbound by
the harrowing revelations as to what has caused such a rift in their relationship.
Thus a play about ordinary things becomes that most extraordinary of things – a mirror that reflects back a new way of looking at the events which happen all around us, the drama in the everyday."
Toby Allanson - Herts and Essex Observer
July 2004
"A SMILE is not always what it seems, as the UK Touring Theatre Company’s production
of Jim Cartwright’s black comedy TWO ably demonstrated.
Friday night’s performance
at High Barn in Great Bardfield was all about surface
appearances and the breaking-down of those facades to reveal the, often grim, reality.
The play’s pub setting was ideal for such a study of the human condition, being one of
the few locations that could conceivably attract the hotch-potch of characters around
which the action centred.
Everyone from an ageing Lothario, to an abusive husband,
via a scarlet woman, a lonely
widower and a reluctant nurse (with others beside) popped
their heads through the
boozer’s doors as the play followed events during a single evening.
It was down to Libby Machin and Dominic Gray, who also undertook directorial duties,
to bring all these misfits to life, and what an outstanding job they did.
The two slipped seamlessly between the different roles and were just as compelling in
the play’s heart-warming moments as they were during rather more harrowing scenes,
of which there were many.
While the jokes hit the spot, it was the aforementioned serious drama that made TWO
most memorable. In particular, the deeply moving final scene when the jolly masks
the landlord and lady reserved for their customers finally and irreversibly slipped.
High Barn itself proved the perfect backdrop for the play with Machin and Gray able
to mingle with the audience as their characters came and went, directly involving
everyone in the unfolding drama.
The pub environment was added to by the splendid themed supper of Lancashire hot-pot
that was served to all lucky enough to have got a ticket for this first-rate production.
This was everyman theatre with characters you could all too well imagine encountering
in a setting no one could fail to relate to and it blew me away."
For more details on UKTT please e-mail info@uktt.net
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