Eugène Ionesco’s single-act play, a couple of lesson that unravels into baroque violence inflicted by a professor on his pupil, is constructed on deliberate, head-scratching confusions. It's only within the ultimate moments that it clarifies all of the comedian absurdity that has come earlier than, with an ending that lands like a sinister punchline. The drama was clearly a mirrored image on Nazism and the tyranny that pervaded Europe within the years earlier than its 1951 premiere.
A brand new pupil (Hazel Caulfield) visits a professor (Jerome Ngonadi) whose method regularly turns from courteous to enraged. The pupil is of unsure age – she resembles a wide-eyed youngster but additionally has subtle, albeit quirky, mental rationale for the straightforward maths workout routines he units her.
Christopher Hone’s oak-panelled classroom set is stuffed with surprises and secret compartments, with loads of motion between actors beneath the course of Max Lewendel, and vivid projections of the equations he scrawls on his board (video design by Ben Glover). This brings some air to this static and claustrophobic play.
The 2 chairs round a central desk denote the facility disparity that can develop wider and wider between scholar and grasp: one is massive, the opposite dinky. The pupil is compelled to squeeze into it, which supplies the drama shades of Alice in Wonderland.
There may be some basic comedian fare (the pupil pulling issues out of her sleeve, as an example), however because the professor springs new, more and more random classes at her, leaping from one arcane topic to a different, our confusion results in frustration and longueurs. The surrealism will increase to baffling levels, nonetheless lucid and right down to earth Donald Watson’s translation.
Regardless of ready performances, this feels distinctly like a dated and barely one-note work that hangs on its ultimate moments and isn't almost as resonant or participating as Ionesco’s The Chairs, not too long ago staged on the Almeida.
Ngonadi’s instructor is nice after which unpredictable in his non-sequitur burblings however regardless of his darkening temper, and later look in Nazi jackboots, he stays comically benign slightly than actually menacing.
There's a extra fascinating chemistry between him and his spiky maid (Julie Stark), who's splendidly camp in her pale-faced severity. Collectively they've the gothic, conspiratorial and barely comedian air of Riff Raff and Magenta from the Rocky Horror Image Present.
The ultimate revelation nonetheless shocks, and there may be energy within the level it makes in regards to the nonsensical pondering of dictators. Nevertheless it has the uncomfortable fringe of a gimmick and it's a moot level whether or not it has been definitely worth the frustrations throughout the wait.
At Southwark Playhouse, London, till 23 July
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