7-20 May 1983
obert
Holman's new play is a beautifully written, if rather sombrely paced tribute
to the fortitude of the working classes, documenting the feuds,, sexual
inequality, supersitition and general ignorance that dogged the lives d
the small north Yorkshire community Fylingthorpe and the neighbouring fishermen
of Robin Hood's Bay. It is the time of the Napoleonic wars and when a ship
is wrecked and an ape is the only survivor, the locals mistake him for a
Frenchman and he is hanged, but not before delivering his Christian message
of forgiveness. Holman's message is a sort of a fatalism tinged with hope,
and at the end of the play the promise of a school makes the future look
slightly rosier. In a strong cast that includes Jim Broadbent as the doltish
Sam and Rosemary Leach as his firm but fair mother, Juliet Stevenson gives
a quite staggering performance radiating goodness and warmth and echoing
the stillness at the play's core.
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