The Little Years
By John Mighton
Directed by Adam Barnard
At the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, June 9-26.
As part of a double bill.
Glimmers of hope
The Little Years
And Hippolytus
Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, Surrey
THEATRE: MIKE PARKER encounters a sad yet hopeful Canadian play and an unconvincing
Greek drama at the Orange Tree.
Another year, another pair of Orange Tree trainee directors head off into the
sunset, well equipped to join other alumni at the RSC, Radio 4 or, if they're
really lucky, Dundee.
In this year's showcase double bill, Mitchell Moreno and Adam Barnard leave
behind them, respectively, a new translation of a Greek classic and a recent
Canadian play being given its European premiere. It is the latter that lingers
in the memory.Written by John Mighton - who, alongside his career as a dramatist,
co-ordinates a schools programme in Canada for children having difficulty with
maths - The Little Years is a sad, touching, yet hopeful piece which examines
both the pain that can be inflicted on those who do not conform to social expectations
and the inspirational nature of imagination and intellectual curiosity.
Kate is a precocious, highly intelligent child of the 1950s whose academic interests
are beyond the understanding of her peers, her mother or her teachers, so she
is thoughtlessly condemned to the intellectual scrapheap.
Prevented from expressing herself academically, while her less gifted brother
becomes a celebrated poet, Kate retreats into herself, her life one of introversion,
loneliness, mental illness, a succession of dreary jobs that she cannot hold
and the sorrow of seeing her ageing mother drifting into senility.
And yet, though denied intellectual fulfilment herself, Kate proves the unwitting
inspiration for a member of the family fortunate enough to enjoy the advantages
of changed times and attitudes.
Helped by fine performances from Cathy Rakoff as Kate and Bettrys Jones as both
Kate's younger self and her niece Tanya - and with excellent support from Gillian
Axtell, Genevieve Swallow and Andrew Macbean - Barnard's pacing and control
of the text is impeccable. And, though one feels that Kate's story deserves
to be told in greater depth, The Little Years is a satisfying piece of work.
WHAT'S ON 16/6/04
FOUR STARS.
Anglo-Canadian director Adam Barnard presents a thrilling piece of contemporary Canadian theatre, The Little Years, from the pen of mathematician John Mighton. This gem of a play shows Kate as a 13-year-old prodigy, so far ahead of her teachers that she gets labelled uneducable, leaving college for a plodding job. But 45 years later her school-age niece discovers Kate's notebooks in the cellar, and is inspired to pursue a career in mathematical sciences.
Barnard's excellent in-the-round staging highlights the ley-lines that link time, space and incident, and his fine cast bring the characters to vivid life; including a touching study of ageing by Gillian Axtell, from bustling matron to geriatric; Cathy Rakoff as grown-up Kate; and from Bettrys Jones as her juvenile self.
Talent-spotters should also catch Andrew Macbean, who discovers droll comedy in a Welsh crematorium clerk, and a male chauvinist headmaster. Delightful.
- John Thaxter
The Little Years
As a mathematician
and upcoming Canadian playwright, John Mighton rages against society's determination
to file us in little boxes according to gender, class and race.
His heroine is Kate, a 13-year-old prodigy who records her time theories in
notebooks but is so far ahead of her teachers that she is marked down as uneducable,
leaving college qualified only for a routine job under a bitch of a boss. But
45 years later her school-age niece discovers the notes that will provide a
springboard for her own career in mathematical sciences.
Hats off to Anglo-Canadian director Adam Barnard who chose this gem of a play
as a professional calling-card, his brilliant in the round staging deploying
the ley-lines of time and space to link the characters in a complex weave of
intellect, emotion and family life. Cheers too for performances that explore
Mighton's characters with delicious, comic subtlety.
As the young Kate and her latter-day niece, newly-graduated Bettrys Jones is
a name to watch. Cathy Rakoff cleverly deploys stillness to convey the adult
Kate's hidden depths. And there is a remarkable study of ageing by Gillian Axtell,
from sturdy matron to geriatric.
Andrew Macbean brings rich life to a narrow-minded headmaster, his self-regarding
artist who takes Kate's words to heart, and discovers sly comedy as a Welsh
crematorium clerk; while Genevieve Swallow as Kate's sister in law adds emotional
variety to the plot.
Only in the closing moments when Mighton's theorem goes into QED mode does the
pace flag. Essential viewing for talent-spotters.
- John Thaxter
Reviews by Adrian Fear
The inability of
the first play to move me is not a criticism that I can make of the second play
"The Little Years" by Canadian playwright John Mighton directed by
Adam Barnard. The play spans a 45 year period beginning in 1950 and focuses
on the life of Kate (played in her younger incarnation by Bettrys Jones and
in her older incarnation by Cathy Rakoff). Kate is a theoretical maths prodigy
who never fulfils her potential, is misunderstood by her mother (Gillian Axtell),
overshadowed by her poet brother and helped in vain by her well-meaning sister-in-law
Grace (Genevieve Swallow).
The play is reminiscent of both Stoppard's "Arcadia" and Hare's "Amy's
View" and is as compelling as either. To describe playwright Mighton as
a polymath is to do him something of a disservice because as well as writing
plays worthy enough to be turned in to films by Robert Lepage Mighton is apparently
revolutionising the Canadian education system. Thankfully he didn't get to Kate
in time: rather than becoming a maple leaf Stephen Hawking she becomes a dysfunctional
spinster: all be it one that unintentionally inspires her niece. In Kate we
have a hero that most of us can identify with: a person who didn't fulfil their
potential, who settled for second best. In the character of Roger (Andrew Macbean),
a successful but mediocre artist, we have another hero we can believe in as
with Kate's unintentional help he realises the paucity of his talent.
The play is wonderful celebration of the joys of mediocrity. The performances
are brilliant and the direction highly intelligent. Both productions have nothing
of the trainee about them but rather represent the work of more mature masters
and both directors clearly have a bright future in front of them. Whilst technically
stunning "Hippolytus" didn't quite work for me whilst "The Little
Years" is without doubt one of the best plays I've seen this year.
The Little Years
By John Mighton
Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond
Part of the Orange Tree's Trainee Director Programme
Review by Philip Fisher (2004)
The second play in the Orange Tree's Trainee Director Programme is written by
a Canadian mathematician and philosopher, John Mighton. It is directed by Adam
Barnard who though only 24, already has a fair directing pedigree behind him,
including Stephen Fry's Latin.
The Little Years focuses on the life of Kate, first seen as a 13 year-old prodigy
fascinated by the nature of time. She is played by two different actresses.
First, Bettrys Jones, whose stature might condemn her to type casting as a bright
teenager but as has already been seen in Wait Until Dark, she does it well.
She hands over to Cathy Rakoff, who takes on the baton into unworldly and unhappy
adulthood.
At school, Kate is an outsider and in Canada in 1950, a girl who wants to study
science is laughed out of court by both teachers and mother. She is also compared
unfavourably to her unseen brother William, a poet in the making.
Throughout her life, which advances to the age of 60, Kate is unhappy and has
mental problems. She is not really designed for marriage despite the efforts
of her sister-in-law (played by Genevieve Swallow), a woman entranced not only
be her husband but also by Andrew Macbean's Roger, "the Barry Manilow of
the painting world".
As Kate ages, so inevitably does her mother, Alice which brings out a wonderful
performance from Gillian Axtell. She advances from frosty middle-age through
a suffering younger old age to senility. Such is the quality of her performance
that it is hard to believe that the same actress is playing all three ages of
woman.
Whilst the subject matter may not sound exciting, the play is exceptionally
moving and Adam Barnard does a wonderful job with it. He creates sympathy for
both Kate and her mother and deals with the time shifts cleverly. At each scene
change, the time lines intersect and overlap with the reappearance of the younger
ages.
All builds to a moving denouement, as Kate meets her niece, a projection of
herself forty years younger. She is won around, rather too sentimentally perhaps,
by young Tanya and this gives the play a hopeful ending. The younger woman,
played by the same actress for effect, has opportunities for a fulfilled adult
life, beginning in the late 1990s, that her aunt never did.
Adam Barnard shows much promise with witty flourishes and the ability both to
manipulate his audience's emotions and get laughs. If there is any criticism,
it is that he has not yet quite mastered the art of directing in the round,
as audience members are far too often graced with lengthy views of actors' backs.
However, this is a minor criticism when set against his selection and direction
of this wistfully entertaining, short play.
Hippolytus + The
Little Years Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond
A director requires
many skills, not least of which is the ability to cast. In So You Want to Be
a Director?, Stephen Unwin says that "if you don’t understand just
how important casting is, your work is bound to fail". Mitchell Moreno
and Adam Barnard are on the Orange Tree’s trainee director scheme, and
this double bill, which opened on Friday, showcases their work. Do they know
how to cast?
[...]
The Little Years
is a fascinating choice from Adam Barnard. Canadian playwright John Mighton
has revolutionized teaching in his native country with an educational handbook,
The Myth of Ability, and his programme JUMP (Junior Undiscovered Mathematical
Prodigies). Mighton’s credo, states Barnard in the programme notes, "is
that intelligence and talent are social constructs. No matter what your potential,
Mighton believes, without proper nurture, you will not achieve".
The Little Years demonstrates these constructs admirably, and in so doing, shows
just how universal are the themes, from mother-son or father-daughter relationships
to educational practices and unwitting maternal collusion with teachers and
the system, neither party having any idea how to deal with unusual ability or
a deviation from the ‘norm’. If you’re a girl growing up in the
1950s (whether in Canada or England, and Barnard has set his version in the
UK), this is even more the case. If, like Kate — beautifully played as
a thirteen year old by Bettrys Jones and equally so as an adult by Cathy Rakoff
— your interest lies in time and mathematics and how these impact on life,
and you have a nurtured, encouraged older brother, William, who becomes a famous
poet, do you have any chance at all?
The action takes place between 1950 and 1995 but although this is depicted chronologically,
the play still manages to juxtapose the past, present and future in a revealing
turn-again fashion because of the scene changes. Simply staged, these ‘miniatures’
show clearly the umbilical cords linking the young Kate and the old, the mother
and her late husband or younger self, Kate and her sister-in-law or gilt-edged
brother. (Are these luminous scene changes down to Barnard or Mighton or both?)
In any event, the result increases our awareness of characters’ motives,
their actions and the consequences.
Not one actor is out of step whether it is Rakoff or Jones as Kate, Gillian
Axtell as Kate’s well-meaning but exasperated mother, Andrew Macbean as
the schoolteacher and Roger the artist, or Genevieve Swallow as Kate’s
sister-in-law, Grace. Bettrys Jones is also impeccable as William and Grace’s
daughter, Tanya.
Adam Barnard is a director who knows what he’s about and his production
of The Little Years is more than worth the ticket price for both pieces. He's
the director to watch.
Sarah Vernon ©
2004
• Hippolytus and The Little Years opened at the Orange Tree Theatre
on 11th June 2004 and continue until 26th. The running order changes every night.
TO BOOK TICKETS, call 020 8940 3633 or visit www.orangetreetheatre.co.uk
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