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Bean's rape play a `powerful' production

Secondary School Theatre -- July 25-27.*** Attempted rape and torture (both the physical and mental variety) provided a gripping evening of theatre last week when Kevin Bean Productions mounted `Extremities' at the Warwick Secondary School Theatre.

Secondary School Theatre -- July 25-27.

*** Attempted rape and torture (both the physical and mental variety) provided a gripping evening of theatre last week when Kevin Bean Productions mounted `Extremities' at the Warwick Secondary School Theatre.

While some may have found the play's physicality and graphic language hard to take, most would agree that this frank exploration of the inherent violence in human nature, was long overdue: some might go further in suggesting that William Mastrosimone's powerful play should be seen in our senior schools, clubs and prisons.

Director Patricia Pogson, no shrinking violet when it comes to tackling difficult subject matter, was back on home territory with this production.

Quite apart from her technical knowledge which ensures such niceties as clever blocking and scrupulous attention to diction, there are few to match her when it comes to bringing out the full impact of a dramatic piece through a remorseless build-up of dramatic tension. There was plenty of opportunity for this in a play that crackles with action and a pervading sense of menace. She was greatly assisted by a dedicated cast who succeeded in bringing a convincing sense of reality to a plot which at times, is in danger of testing our credulity.

Author Mastrosimone, who certainly cashed in on a hot topic with this piece, apparently based his play on a true story which centres around a young girl who is confronted by an intruder in her secluded rural home. The underlying theme of control and manipulation is taken to the limits as victim turns victimiser, tying her tormentor up, depositing him in the fireplace and alternately dousing him with boiling water and gasoline and whacking him about the head as she plans his murder. Her unsuspecting housemates stumble into this lively scene, becoming reluctant players in the life-and-death power struggle taking place in their living room.

Fortunately, there are some wonderfully comic, even farcial moments of light relief in this basically depressing play, and Kevin Bean as Raul, the would-be rapist, performed an impressive balancing act between high drama and dark, street-wise humour.

Back in Bermuda after his first year of study at The Neighbourhood Playhouse, Bean eloquently revealed just how beneficial this training has been. This is an extraordinarily difficult role, particularly since most of it is played trussed and blindfolded, but this actor achieved a marvellous mix of menace, laced with a glib brand of humour ("Get the cops!'' he yells, as the gas is poured over him). Only at the end, as he confesses to being a serial rapist, are we allowed to see his vulnerability in a moving soliloquy on his immutable sickness.

He is well matched in the tricks department -- a situation he has obviously not reckoned with -- by Marjorie, played with real distinction by the gifted Lisa Young. Sexily attractive and no stranger herself to explicit language, Marjorie's ensuing duel of survival with the irrascible Raul kept the rather sparse audience on the edge of their seats. There was an excellent sense of rapport between these two, played out with convincing urgency as the suspenseful plot became ever more convoluted.

The eventual arrival home of her two female friends gives the author the opportunity to delve into the complicated nature of rape and sexual assault, for as the plot unfolds, we find that Marjorie is herself less than angelic but, between them, the two women (one, an undeclared victim of rape, the other, a `dime-store psychiatrist') illustrate the stereotyped attitudes which still surround the vexed subject of rape. As Marjorie points out her potential difficulty in proving the attempted assault ("no marks''..."before believing a woman in court she has to be dead on arrival''), they veer towards sympathy for the now wailing prisoner and, worst of all, imply that Miss Marjorie might have `deserved' the `fate worse than death'. There were two fine performances by Chandra Ratner and Nicole Cerussi (graduates of The Neighbourhood Playhouse) in these supporting roles, Ratner especially, giving an understated yet hilarious performance as she deals with an increasingly preposterous situation by getting quietly stewed on a bottle of wine.

All in all, a fine piece of adult, virtually no-holds-barred theatre which deserved a much larger audience (although it was good to see members of Jabulani Repertory out in support of their colleagues).

Warwick Secondary School turned out to be an excellent venue and until Bermuda acquires an urgently needed theatre space in Hamilton where young people can experiment without facing bankruptcy, similar groups could do worse than to take advantage of this under-used location.

PATRICIA CALNAN Kevin Bean