Frozen

A towering drama

THE language in Bryony Lavery's play is vile and there is an abundance of it - but Chris Clarke, playing Ralph the multiple murderer of children, uses it with an appalling believability that his character wears like a bespoke overcoat.  This is a towering performance in the close confines of Simon Ravenhill's studio production, where we see him on his own or with the mother of one of his victims or the psychiatrist-lecturer researcher who is taking a particular interest in him.

But it is not all foul-mouthed ranting by any means. There's a vital scene in which the mother - splendidly steered by Julie Innes from blind hate to forgiving him - meets him in prison after 20 years.

It contains the longest theatrical silence I have ever watched. Harold Pinter would have been so proud.

Another of the play's attention-claiming facets is the fact that Agnetha the busy-busy medico - Elizabeth Batstone - is a near-neurotic of engrossing unpredictability.

Here are three powerful performances. Interestingly, it is about half an hour before there is a scene involving more than one character.

The scene is set by a series of challenging monologues and it's a device that works admirably.

John Slim, Birmingham Mail, Feb 23 2006

FROZEN promised to take the audience on an emotional journey and it certainly delivered.

In Briony Lavery's play, presented by The Nonentities, housewife, Nancy Shirley (Julie Innes), sends her 10-year-old daughter, Rhona, to visit her grandma's house but she never arrives.

Twenty years later, following his arrest for the unsuccessful abduction of a young girl, Ralph Wantage (Chris Clarke) admits to abduction and murder of seven other children - including Rhona.

Dr Agnetha Gottmundsdottir (Elizabeth Batstone) is investigating Ralph's psyche to verify her theories in her thesis "Serial Killing - A Forgivable Act?" while battling her own demons.

Innes's performance as the distraught mother was so moving that I started to feel her character's pain as she tried to come to terms with what had happened.

Clarke portrayed troubled Ralph very well and I did not want to be sitting as close to him as I was, as he began to scare me.

Batstone also gave a strong performance as the American academic who slowly began to understand Ralph a bit better.

The Studio's intimate setting was perfect for this powerful and thought-provoking production. I definitely recommend it.

HL