THEATRE REVIEWS

David Hare was worried when he wrote this play about the state that Britain’s railways had been allowed to get in by all the governments that had been entrusted with their well being. Not much of a foundation block from which to build a great play, but he did it with the help of a great cast of actors. The “Permanent Way” is what the trains run on and if you get that right you are half way to creating the travel system which will make a country great. However, all the governments used the railways as a source of income and ploughed little back to keep the infrastructure safe and advanced, with poor management and poor decision making by ministers who subsequently passed poor legislation relating to it. This is a brilliant piece of writing and should not be missed.

This play deals with these disasters by way of recent train crashes and how they were dealt with by the people involved. Strong acting by the cast of nine whose diction is impeccable as they work their way through various characters. A list of those on stage is the best tribute that can be given to their talents. Flaminia Cinque, Nigel Cooke, Matthew Dunster, Souad Faress, Sam Graham, Lloyd Hutchinson, Kika Markham, Bella Merlin and Ian Redford were the names that go with the faces of these talented people. The whole was brought superbly together by director Max Stafford-Clark.

If you like your brain stretched and taxed so that you have to concentrate for the whole time that you are in the theatre this is the play for you. It is great theatre where words are meant to count and the plot bites to the bone. Recommended. © BA

“The Permanent Way” is in Leeds on the 5th May, 2004 to the 8th May, 2004 and touring.