Chaos reigns in fringe triumph
Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard, 6 January 2005

What a wonderful way to inaugurate a fresh year of fringe theatre. Activated Image, long one of the most promising young companies around, reaches maturity with a sophisticated and thought-provoking piece from an award-winning playwright inexplicably unknown this side of the Atlantic.

Writer Jason Sherman allows us no time to settle comfortably into our seats. Instead, we are transported instantly, with the assistance of Adam Barnard’s pacy, assured direction and Vicki Fifield’s utilitarian design, into the pulsing action of a hard-fought squash match between old friends. Successful, middle-aged Reuben, we learn, does this every week.

A chance encounter with a doom-mongering old acquaintance later that night puts him in a philosophical mood and has him proclaiming: “I love my life”. But, in precipitous succession, Reuben proceeds to lose his wife, job, best friend and brother. Things appear to be turning out exactly as bold pal Paul had predicted. The only trouble is that Paul has been dead for over a year.

Eliding time frames with élan to enrich the narrative and moving the action backwards and forwards from a pivotal party 10 years previously, Sherman is in total and joyous control of his material.

The drama is powered by the principle of chaos theory, of insignificant events with world-wide consequences, and reaches sobering conclusions about man’s seemingly limitless capacity to repeat the same sorry mistakes.

The hard-working cast of six doubles and triples up roles with confidence; commendations to Mufrida Hayes and Sandy Walsh for their thoughtful portrayals of the long-suffering women in Reuben’s life. Geoffrey Towers aptly makes his ever-present Reuben a hollow, disengaged shell of a man. Let us hope that 2005 brings more of this company and this writer.

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