All good dramatists carve out their own territory. After an award-winning debut last year with Visitors, Barney Norris delivers another beautifully poetic play set in rural Hampshire. Having previously dealt with the triumph of married love over the strains of old age, he now looks at the lost chances and vanished dreams of a younger generation.
It is a play driven by character rather than plot but, having seized your interest, it never lets go. The setting is the garden of a village pub and the three people we meet are united by a lack of fulfilment. John, the seemingly extrovert publican, is haunted by his wife’s desertion and the fact he is having to sell up to a brewery chain. His young friend, Mark, scratches around for work while grieving over the death of a girl he cherished and grew up with. Even Liz, the village organist who pops in for a lemonade and radiates good cheer, exudes a yearning for loving companionship. But, while Norris shows how their three lives change over the course of a year, his real strength lies in conveying the waste of missed opportunities. There’s a magical moment when John and Liz jointly sing Dear Lord and Father of Mankind only for the publican to chip in with a brutal remark that colours both their futures.
Alice Hamilton’s excellent production for the touring company, Up In Arms, reminds us that the play, in its portrait of a changing countryside, is like a minor-key version of Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem. James Doherty as the displaced publican, Ellie Piercy as the outwardly smiling organist and Hasan Dixon as the aspirational Mark also give delicately nuanced performances in a play that captures all the still, sad music of humanity.
• At Arcola theatre, London, until 17 October. Box office: 020-7503 1646.
