Reviews

Antarctica

The Lancet 2001

Dissecting Room, Art

Antarctic legend

Alexander Campbell

Antarctica

A play by David Young at the Savoy Theatre, London, UK, running until Dec 8, 2001, and then touring in the UK

In the early years of the 20th century, polar travel had returned to the public eye. Explorers such as Peary, Scott, Shackleton, and Amundsen were lionised by the public. These polar explorers would be utterly isolated for months or years at a time, in the harshest environments on earth. Some returned with news of another Farthest North or South, or a new mountain range; some returned with grisly stories of disaster and tragedy; some, like Scott, never returned at all.

In early 1912, as the polar winter drew in, the survivors of Scott's last expedition were faced with disaster. The polar party—Scott, Captain Gates, and their companions—were overdue and almost certainly dead. A subsidiary party on the unexplored coast of Victoria Land 250 miles to the north—six men, led by Lieutenant Victor Campbell—could still be alive, although trapped. Their survey complete, they had intended to leave by sea, but the ice had set in and their ship had been unable to reach them. They had neither food nor shelter. Nothing could be done before winter—Campbell's northern party would simply have to survive 7 months of darkness. They dug themselves a snowhole, stockpiled seal and penguin meat, and settled in for the long night. Canadian playwright David Young has explored their life on the islet they christened Inexpressible Island in his new play Antarctica.

Young warns that the play is fictional, although based on the true story—an awkward compromise that may nonetheless be the best approach. He has drawn on other characters of polar history to depict the members of the northern party. Campbell (Mark Bazeley), the leader and Scott's overall second in command, was certainly a martinet—Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Scott's assistant naturalist, confessed “I was very frightened of Campbell” on the voyage south. Priestley (Stephen Boxer), like Cherry-Garrard, was a non-naval amateur naturalist. As the narrator of much of the play, recounted from his book-lined study 30 years later, he is one of the best-drawn characters, eager to collect material and experience before becoming a writer.

Priestley's status as outsider makes him a good narrator, and his suited figure flits back and forward between his armchair in one corner of the stage and the snowhole set in the centre without seeming too incongruous. In fact, especially in the first act, the set—a wedge-shaped gap between an angled platform and the stage itself—does a very good job of conveying the cramped, dark, filthy inside of their snowhole.

But the characters, however authentic their costumes, occasionally ring false. They move with great energy—the slow-motion movements of exhausted and frozen men are completely missing.

Especially in a contrived confrontation between Campbell and the mutinous Seaman Abbott (Darrell D'Silva), this is jarring—but the real pace of events would be almost impossible to stage, in the suspended time of a snowhole where arguments could continue for weeks in unchanging gloom. Abbott, and his fellow ratings Dickason (Eddie Marsan), and Browning (Jason Flemyng) are less well drawn than the officers Campbell, Priestley, and Dr Levick (Ronan Vibert); and, especially in the clashes between Abbott and the loyal “Dog” Dickason, seem more like personified ideas than real people. But this flaw only seems odd until we remember that these events are recounted retrospectively by Priestley—and the division between officers and ratings was as sharply drawn in the snow as onboard ship. Campbell, in what must be a true incident, even creates an “invisible wall” between officers and ratings, on each side of which the explorers could talk freely about their colleagues. To Priestley, no doubt, the distance between officers and ratings was still very real.

The health of the party, surely one of their keenest interests, is dealt with in detail. Browning's frostbitten foot is a continual concern, and his touching faith in Levick's medical skill is an important contrast to Abbott's rebellious pessimism when his hand becomes injured. But Abbott seems to have no redeeming features—as Young draws him, he is seething with class hatred and constantly at odds with the rest of the party. Would such a character really have been picked for such an expedition? Scott, generally a good judge of men, would be unlikely to make such a mistake. Abbott is the most obvious sign that, from time to time, Young has let his own agenda and desire for dramatic tension get the better of his sense of history.

Young also fails to address one of the most important questions about such men: why did they do it? What possible reason of duty, or curiosity, or career could drive men to make such journeys—and in Priestley's case, to return to the pole after an earlier trip with Shackleton? For that matter, what were they doing in Victoria Land in the first place? Instead of addressing this issue, Young makes Priestley and the others engage in rambling discussions on time, evolution, and the social order—much as they must have done in real life. But leaving the question of motive unanswered is Antarctica's, most serious flaw.

But, these criticisms aside, Young has done a very good job. 7 months in a filthy snowhole is a difficult subject for a 2-hour play in a comfortable London theatre, and he deserves credit for conveying it so vividly—as does set designer Rae Smith. This story is worth telling; Young's characters themselves remark “We'll be forgotten, after all; they may remember Scott, but not us”. Their survival, and their final trek to safety (not in the play) are a tremendous story of survival in atrocious conditions, which has unjustly been overshadowed by the disaster of the polar party. But Campbell's northern party was a success; they did all they went to do and survived to report their findings. Antarcticaresurrects their story and displays them in a light that, if fictional, at least conveys the right impression.

"Absolutely {perhaps}" 2003

Seeing Michael Billington's raves posted outside Wyndham's Theatre-"dazzling," he wrote-my curiosity was aroused about this peculiarly-titled drama: "Abolutely {perhaps}" I thought I knew all the Pirandello Canon, but I'd never encountered such a play.

What really decided me on a Senior Concession ticket, however, was the fact that Joan Plowright, Lady Olivier, was in the cast. Plus Darrell D'Silva, Gawn Grainger, Anna Carteret, Timothy Bateson, Jud Charlton, Jean Stanley, and Barry Stanton! Also Lolly Susi!

As is his wont, the octogenarian Zeffirelli not only staged the drama, but also designed the stage-set, with handsome mosaic-wall effects. The moment the curtain rose, I realized this was in fact Pirandello's "Right You Are, If You Think You Are". Over 50 years ago, at UC/Berkeley, I had done the lighting for our Drama Department production in Wheeler Hall. So I found I still knew the play almost by heart, although Martin Sherman-he wrote Bent-has drafted a new version which retains the mystery of the original:

Is the new City Hall secretary mentally afflicted, or is his mother-in-law, Signora Frola? Is the wife he keeps secluded from her actually his first wife-who he insists is dead-or is she his second wife, whom his mother-in-law, insists is in fact her daughter?

Civic busybodies-including the Mayor-want to know the truth of the matter, summoning the old woman first. She says she's humoring her son-in-law to prevent a worse mental delusion. He appears and insists she's the one driven over the line with grief, so he is protecting her by keeping his new wife apart from her.

Pirandello-justly noted for his dramatic presentation of human ambiguities-makes it clear, through his raisonneur, Lamberto Laudisi, that it's really no-one's business as long as the man does his job well. So the leaders of local society are left with no definitive answer: Either he's deluded, or his mother-in-law is…

As this play is now almost a hundred years old, it might seem only a period-piece, a curiosity of Italian small-town life in the early 20th century. But considering the recently attempted impeachment of President Clinton-not for Oval Office blow-jobs, but for lying about them to flawed elected officials-this inquisition still seems topical.

What a play Pirandello could have written about Kenneth Starr and Bill Clinton! But this is not a topic for Arthur Miller. And certainly not for Lanford Wilson.

Joan Plowright was magisterial as Signora Frola: Compassion and Suffering…

Krakatoa: Volcano of Destruction

2006

aired on Distcovery - Science chanel

Krakatoa: Volcano of Destruction

North American premiere of two-hour BBC docudrama

On August 23, 1883, volcanoes on the tiny Indonesian island of Krakatoa erupted creating one of the world’s deadliest natural disasters. In less than 48 hours it devastated hundreds of towns and villages, and killed more than 36,000 people. Those who survived the eruption left diaries and eyewitness accounts - on Sun., June 11 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, Discovery Channel shares their stories in the North American premiere of the BBC docudrama, Krakatoa: Volcano of Destruction.

Krakatoa was one of the most catastrophic eruptions in history - it is also one of the best documented. From Michael Mosley, the Executive Producer behind the BBC’s natural disaster docudramas Supervolcano and Pompeii - The Last Day, this two-hour special combines spectacular CGI and real-life accounts from multiple source, including personal stories, photographs, newspaper articles and the latest scientific research. In this vivid reconstruction of what many consider to be the world’s first global media event, Krakatoa: Volcano of Destruction is an authentic reenactment of what happened during the build-up, the terrifying climax and the devastating aftermath of the explosion.

When Krakatoa erupted in 1883, the explosion had a force equivalent to 200 megatons of TNT, annihilating two-thirds of the pre-existing island and leaving only the southern tip. The sound of the eruption - believed to be the loudest in recorded history - was heard as far away as Perth, Australia, more than 3,000km away. The blast sent shockwaves around the globe seven times and the tsunamis rocked ships as far away as South Africa. More than 10km³ of rock, ash and pumice were ejected, darkening the sky for days and the gasses emitted from the volcano wreaked havoc on the world’s climate for the next five years.

Like Supervolcano and Pompeii - The Last Day, Krakatoa: Volcano of Destruction combines factual events with personal experiences and breathtaking CGI, telling the story through key characters who witnessed the eruption and lived to describe what they saw: the telegraph master of the Javan port who battled to keep the lines of communications open; the colonial official and his wife in Sumatra who lost their baby; and the Dutch sea captain who was the closest person to the eruption to survive.

Krakatoa: Volcano of Destruction begins three months before the final fatal eruption on August 23. On May 20th, 1883, passing ships see a massive plume of smoke and ash rising from the island’s northern peak. Over the next three months, sudden tremors and distant explosions shake the region - but it’s a mere suggestion of what is to come. Then, on August 26, the telegraph master of a port in western Java hears an ear-splitting roar, and as the seas heave, he reports seeing Krakatoa “vomiting fire and smoke.”

Dutch sea captain J.B. Lindeman (Darrell D’Silva, Dirty Pretty Things, Cambridge Spies) decides to try and save his passengers and crew by pulling out to sea and riding out the storm in deep waters. After confirming the rumors of terrified fisherman are in fact true, colonial official Willem Beijerinck (Rupert Penry-Jones, Match Point, Spooks, Cassanova) dispatches a Morse Code message to the Governor-General before heading into the hills with his wife Johanna (Olivia Williams, X-Men, Sixth Sense) and children, with the first of a series of tsunamis at their heels and boiling mud and pumice raining down around them.

In the final apocalyptic phase, four tsunamis radiate out from the island, each one bigger than the last. The final wave is a 30-metre wall of water, black with ash and debris, which comes as the three peaks of Krakatoa crash into the sea and the region is plunged into darkness.

When the storm is over and the sun returns, Captain Lindeman surveys the devastation. Those aboard his ship endured hell to reach their island destination - only to see it vanish into the sea before their eyes. Three quarters of Krakatoa disappeared, 10km³ of rock have been vapourized, 165 villages destroyed and more than 36,000 people killed - among them, the Beijerinck’s baby who succumbs to burns and dehydration. From their meager refuge in the hills it takes the family days to reach the coastline - which is littered with pumice, debris and corpses - where a passing ship finally rescues them. Most are not so lucky - with survivors forced to wait weeks for rescue, many die of dehydration or starve to death before help comes.

Paradise Lost

Royal Theatre, Northampton

Fri 30 January to Sat 14 February, 2004

To create both Hell and the Garden of Eden on the Royal Theatre stage is a mammoth project. It's certainly a challenge.

Darrell D'Silva plays Satan

The Paradise Lost story is well known because it comes from the bible. It begins with the dramatic expulsion of Satan and his army of angels from Heaven. We follow his journey from the dark depths of Hell through to God's newly created paradise on Earth. In Eden, Satan sets about the temptation of Man, targeting the weaker of the two newly created beings, Eve, and successfully convincing her to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.

Leah Muller plays Eve and Belial

It's a classic battle between good and evil. Director Rupert Goold said: "We engage with the characters of Satan and his fallen angels because of their humanity, recognising in their actions the potential within us all to rebel and challenge the established order. "

Milton wrote his epic poem more than 360 years ago, yet it's thought no one has attempted to put it on stage until now. What a coincidence, then, that on the very day the Royal Theatre has its world premiere, the Bristol Old Vic opens with its own version of Paradise Lost.

Challenge

Christian Bradley is Adam and Moloch

Poet and translator Ben Power has been brought in to adapt Milton's work for the Royal.

And Ben Stones - winner of the Linbury Biennial Prize For Stage Design - will provide the set. Not only does he have to bring to life the fiery depths of hell, but create the idyllic home of Adam and Eve, and transform Satan into a serpent.

If nothing else, it sounds like a real spectacle.

Further Than the Furthest Thing 2000

Drams None, the show is beautifully hypnotic

Venue Theatre Traverse (Venue 15)

Address Cambridge Street beside Usher Hall

Reviewer Thelma Good

Plays can transport you to places impossible to visit, and to feelings you hide inside. This is a superbly, fine production of a marvellous new play by Zinnie Harris. The direction by Irina Brown of these five wonderful actors, Paola Dionisotti, Gary McInnes, Kevin McMonagle, Darrell D'Silva and Arlene Cockburn. They all took us away to a remote imaginary island where boats rarely come and no outsider stays. We listened to the islanders talk in rhythms, with a lyrical speech pattern we have never heard before. They moved differently too. Communicating simply and directly with one another on an island where only two people have left but come back again in recent times.

As we watched, their story unfolded faultlessly in front of us, giving us the ability to understand how a isolated community copes with living with only themselves to fall back on. They have a wisdom we do not, for they always have to deal with life pragmatically. There is soft humour in the play and sudden shocks too. On the night I went the audience seemed to listen together and to react as one. Some changes were so alarming we started in our seats in a community of spirit so committed were we to the five people who lived and moved on the stage before us.

This is a profoundly moving play whose story you really must go and see. I have not told you what happens, the play does that far better than I could. The voice coach is Patsy Rodenburg, designer Nikki Turner, Lighting Designer Neil Austin, Music Gary Yershon and Sound Engineer Duncan Chave - indeed all involved gave top quality contributions to this world class production.

THE LYING KIND

written and directed by Anthony Neilson

JERWOOD THEATRE DOWNSTAIRS 23 November 2002 - 11 January 2003

Cast: Sheila Burrell, Darrell D’Silva, Thomas Fisher, Patrick Godfrey, Alison Newman, Matthew Pidgeon, Kellie Shirley

Director: Anthony Neilson; Designer: Bob Bailey; Lighting Designer: Chahine Yavroyan; Sound Designer: Neil Alexander

Like most of Neilson's writing, including The Censor and The Penetrator, this is not for the high-minded or over-sensitive, but it did have me weeping and breathless with laughter at the grisly misunderstandings.

'…Neilson turns to farce like an old hand. His play is littered with virtuoso twists which transform the simple scenario into a hilarious living nightmare.

'Besides Neilson's love of foul language, he also has Joe Orton's ear for exasperating word play and a similar feel for knock-about slapstick. Yapping lap dogs get truncheoned and stuffed in helmets while the comatose vicar is bundled into a cupboard - only to make an immaculately timed resurrection.

'Neilson's farce is not without its message. He gleefully almost recklessly, gets stuck into a Punch & Judy treatment of psychology of moral panic and of anti-paedophile hysteria. Neilson knows his taboos and goes for the jugular.

'So, while the cops unwittingly demonstrate how it's cruel to be kind, Alison Newman's Gronya demonstrates how blind vengeance can be taken for public service.

'The breathless mania at the heart of the play is perfectly caught in Neilson's frantic directions of his own writing and is cunningly disguised as a good old-fashioned romp in Bob Bailey's deceptively conventional design.'

DAILY MAIL

'Darrel D'Silva and Thomas Fisher are a delight as the inept, squeamish policemen - the one a mixtur eof Harry Worth and Eric Morecambe, the other a lanky goon in the Frank Spencer mould.'

THE INDEPENDENT

'As an alternative to pantomime this Christmas, this works very well.'

THE STAGE

'…his play gleefully and skilfully heaps an ever more precarious load of farcical indignities upon his hapless case.

'…such is the fine mess that PCs Blunt and Gobbel get themselves into, a dead daughter soon seems the least of their worries. And Neilson's trademark provocativeness is satisfyingly on display.'

TIME OUT

'…Neilson's premise is seasonally ghoulish: two dumb cops, who quickly fall into a Laurel and Hardy pattern of bully and victim, are deputed on Christmas Eve to tell an elderly couple that their daughter has died in a motorway crash. While dithering outside the door, they are assaulted by a paedophile-hunting mum convinced they are trying to spirit away a child abuser. And, once inside the house, their humane inability to tell the truth, leads to endless misunderstanding.'

THE GUARDIAN

'A Christmas play at the Royal Court was never going to be like a Christmas show anywhere else, especially when the author is Anthony Neilson, best known for such in-yer-face shockfests as Penetrator, The Censor and this year's Stitching.

'There is no hint of fairy-tale enchantment here, no good-humoured dames, no glow of bonhomie. Neilson's idea of fun is paedophile hunters, certifiably stupid policeman, fatal car accidents, and the gratuitous ill-treatment of chihuahuas.

'The action takes place on Christmas Eve. Two absurdly dim coppers arrive at the doorstep of a terraced house with the unenviable task of telling the elderly couple inside that their daughter has been killed in a car crash. As soft-hearted as they are dim, they find this almost impossible to do, and matters go from bad to worse when the Alzheimer's-afflicted old lady gets the wrong end of the stick, and thinks her beloved labrador has been run over.

'I have always been a sucker for dialogue at cross purposes, and Neilson comes up with a classic routine here, the cops thinking the old man is volunteering a description of his recently deceased daughter when he's actually describing the dog. "Long, very prominent teats," says dear old silver-haired Balthasar (Patrick Godfrey). "Smells a bit mangy… can't you just burn her and be done with it?" The plods' outrage is a joy to behold.

'…Thomas Fisher, coming on like a cross between Frank Spencer and Rodney from Only Fools and Horses, is outstanding as the terminally idiotic cop, Gobbel; Darrell D'Silva supplies strong support as his almost equally stupid straight-man; and Matthew Pidgeon has moments as a sanctimonious vicar in women's underwear.'

DAILY TELEGRAPH

'…Neilson's plot development is as satisfying as it is unexpected. And you can forgive a lot of a play in which a cop hides the chihuahua he thinks he's killed inside his helmet, only for it to recover its teeth and claws.

'Add a fierce, foul-mouthed Alison Newman as a vigilante mum, proudly parading a T-shirt embossed PAPS or Parents Against Paedophile Scum, and you have plenty more opportunity for the mistaken identities and misunderstandings on which farce thrives. By the ending - this time, prepared-for, surprising, and a lot funnier than it is sad - I myself was laughing pretty freely.'

DIRTY PRETTY THINGS

by rich cline

We're among London's immigrant community, most of whom are illegally in the country. Okwe (Ejiofor) is a Nigerian who drives a cab by day and works as a hotel receptionist by night. He's a doctor by training, but has to lay low in Britain. His friends include the Turkish cleaning lady Senay (Tatou), a lively and funny hooker (Okonedo), a pathologist (Wong) and a self-absorbed doorman (Buric). Then he starts to discover strange things around the hotel involving his boss Juan (Lopez). As the story develops, Okwe and Senay get sucked into a nightmare involving a thuggish immigration officer (Darrell D'Silva), bosses even worse than Juan, and a black market in passports and body organs.

The title reflects the film's basic theme about how all sorts of unimaginable things go on out of sight, right under our noses. About how the entire British society is run by illegal immigrants who work in the shadows and are mercilessly pursued by the authorities, abused by their employers and manipulated by ruthless opportunists. Yes, this is strong stuff, but Frears avoids the soapbox by concentrating on the personal drama. Okwe's journey is involving and fascinating, moving and touching, romantic and terrifying ... all at the same time. And Ejiofor plays it perfectly--nailing the nice-guy fugitive dead on. We are fully with him in this story, understanding why the people around him all rely on him so much, even though there's no way he can ever be a legitimate member of society. Meanwhile, his budding romance with Senay is nicely underplayed (Tatou is very good, although not terribly convincing as a Turk). And Lopez sparkles in his first English-language role--but then we knew he was good at playing a smiling villain (see Harry He's Here to Help). All of this has the look and feel of an independent film, with its underground attitude and the way Frears and Knight seem to effortlessly capture the camaraderie and tension of the immigrant community. It also has a great story that moves quickly and suspensefully, touching on the ghastly reality these characters glimpse, not to mention the daily pressures, horrors and stolen joys. It's a very well-told, entertaining tale ... and an important film too.

Out of the blue 2002

Background Information

Cast and Crew

Cast Includes:

Paul Nicholls (Matt Pearson)

Keeley Forsyth (Joanne Player)

Peter Wight (DC Ron Ludlow)

Orla Brady (DS Rebecca "Becky" Bennett)

John Duttine (DI Eric Temple)

Lennie James (DC Bruce Hannaford)

Darrell D'Silva (DC Warren Allen)

Andy Rashleigh (DC Tony Bromley)

David Morrissey (DS Jim Llewyn)

Neil Dudgeon (DC Marty Brazil)

Writer: - Peter Bowker, Bill Gallagher

Director: - David Richards

Producer: - Jonathan Curling

Canadian Premiere: Vision TV, March 1, 2002

UK Transmission dates: (1st series ) BBC1, May 23 - June 27, 1995; (2nd series) BBC1, 1996

Paul featured as a guest star in the first episode of the second series.

Reviews

Tv.com

Series Outline

Out of the Blue was a hard-hitting BBC police drama, featuring the same mix of plot-driven and character-based drama as ITV's successful The Bill, but a more generous budget allowed a wider variety of location shoots than that series was then able to manage. By adopting the 50-minute episode format and post-watershed slot of the pre-1988 The Bill, Out of the Blue was able to explore its stories in greater depth and achieve a greater degree of realism. Shot on film, its tight script, fast-paced direction and strong cast made powerful viewing.

Series script editor, Claire Elliot, described the series as "contemporary, gritty, urban reality," that merely used the police setting as a vehicle for telling its stories.

Out of the Blue followed a team of detectives at the fictitious Brazen Gate, Sheffield, through grisly murder cases, clashes with an already divided community and through the dramas of their personal lives.

John Hannah starred as ambitious DS Frankie Drinkall, whose life is turned upside down when he is diagnosed with epilepsy. His refusal to accept his condition led him into a downward spiral and ultimately to his demise. DS Rebecca Bennett (Orla Brady) gave the series an ever-present emotional charge as she found herself the subject of the affections of both PC Alex Holder (Stephen Billington) and DC Warren Allen (Darrell D'Silva), while Neil Dudgeon provides some classic comedy moments as the impetuous DC Marty Brazil.

The Rose Tattoo

Tennessee Williams described The Rose Tattoo, first staged in 1951, as his “love-play to the world”, and its mix of sunny comedy and sad shadows clearly evoke a sense of passion, loving, betrayal and loss.

Set in New Orleans’ Sicillian community, it tells the story of Serafina who, after her husband’s death, tries to cherish his memory while preventing her daughter, Rosa, from enjoying life. But her frozen heart is melted when Alvaro, a truck driver, stops at her home, and Rosa’s sexuality is awakened by Jack, a sailor.

The untimely death of Steven Pimlott earlier this year means that the direction of this revival has been taken up by his friend Nicholas Hytner. The result, on Mark Thompson’s set, bustles with life, filling the giant Olivier stage not only with Serafina’s gesticulating female neighbours, but with their children as well. A goat appears, twice.

Zoe Wanamaker’s Serafina is a snarling, unkempt mix of slut and vixen. When she learns of love’s betrayal, she visibly carries her disillusionment like a weight. By contrast, Darrell D’Silva’s Alvaro is a brawny, comic presence, and his appearance introduces a welcome note of comedy to the show. His struggle to open a bottle of spumante is a hilarious comment on his manhood.

Susannah Fielding makes her professional debut as the virginal but randy Rosa, and Andrew Langtree is a solid Jack. As in much of Williams’ work, there are moments of metaphoric overload, and the long shadow of his schizophrenic sister Rose often falls across the text. But Hytner’s production stresses the vivacity of this humanistic tale, and is a fitting tribute to Pimlott.

Production information

By: Tennessee Williams

Composer: Jason Carr

Management: National Theatre

Cast: Zoe Wannamaker, Darrell D'Silva,Sheila Ballantine, Susannah Fielding, Stephanie Jacob, Rosalind Knight, Andrew Langtree, Maggie McCarthy, Jules Melvin, Sharon Bower, Jonathan Bryan, Nicolas Chagrin, Marilyn Cutts, Buffy Davis, Rendah Heywood, Katerina Jugati, Mac McDonald, Gerald Monaco, Francine Morgan, Marianne Morley, Sadie Shimmin

Director: Steven Pimlott

Design: Mark Thompson

Sound: Paul Groothuis

Lighting: Peter Mumford

**The Stage

The Rose Tattoo

Olivier, London

Michael Billington

Friday March 30, 2007

The Guardian

It was Sam Wanamaker who first introduced Tennessee Williams's play to England in 1958; and now his daughter, Zoe, gives a spectacularly fine performance in it. So fine, indeed, that it both honours the memory of the late Steven Pimlott, who started a production completed by Nicholas Hytner, and gives the illusion the play is better than it is.

Williams's heroine, Serafina, is a Sicilian dressmaker living in the Gulf Coast who, after the death of her truck-driver husband, goes into a prolonged three-year mourning: a reverie from which she is awoken, spiritually and sexually, by the arrival of a muscular buffoon.

But, while one applauds the play's affirmation of life and Williams's sly humour, the exposition is lazy, the rose-symbolism wildly excessive and the parallels between Serafina and her daughter, who finally conquers an improbably virginal sailor, over-contrived.

Never mind. Williams created a great character in Serafina that produces from Zoe Wanamaker the performance of her career. What she captures brilliantly are Serafina's contradictions. This is a warm-blooded woman who rejoices in the recollected animality of her, in fact, faithless husband. But Wanamaker also has the propriety of the Sicilian immigrant. She devoutly worships a Marian statue, rejects the lewd talk of loose women and, even when about to bed her late husband's comic replacement, ensures the secret is kept from her neighbours.

Wanamaker unforgettably gives us a woman in whom passion is always at war with Catholicism and observation of the social niceties.

After a sluggish start, the play takes off with the arrival of the substitute for the dead husband. And Darrell D'Silva is excellent as this amiable hulk filled with suppressed sexual longing: watching his hands trace the outline of Wanamaker's well-contoured body is a delight in itself and a reminder of Williams's own comic instinct.

Susannah Fielding also makes the most of Serafina's mewed-up daughter ardently in pursuit of the least-likely sailor in dramatic history. And Mark Thompson's clapboard set also conveys the cluttered nature of Serafina's workroom and provides ample space for the countless children, choric neighbours and even the goat that fill out the action.

At times, not least when the local witch comes on crying "The Wops are at it again", you feel Williams lays on the atmosphere with impasto thickness. But the play is worth seeing for Wanamaker whose Serafina is the embodiment of comic vitality.

Krakatoa: The Last Days (Personal Review)

U.S. viewers had a chance to see this wonderful docudrama movie on Discovery Science chanel a few months back. Everyone else who does not get this station missed an amazing presentation of one of the most horrific disasters of modern times.

I am amongst you who did not see this on Discovery. I saw clips of the program online and found that no one I knew had access to the program at the time. I searched everywhere for the DVD. It is only available in area 2 format (U.K.), which will not play on most of our U.S. dvd players. It would play on the computer dvd ram, so I ordered this tv movie in the Area 2 format.

This is the true story of the destruction of Krakatoa in 1883. 36,000+ people are known to have died. The filming of the disaster is top notch, and special effects excellent.

The presentation starts as a narrative of the diaries of survivors, but also includes the survival of passengers on a cargo ship, and the heroism of it's Captain, J.H. Lindemann, played by Darrell D'Silva.

Darrell D'Silva's portrayal of Lindemann, a tough, lonely, sensitve man who's bravery in the face of disaster. He is credited to have saved the lives of all his passengers and was awarded by the Dutch government the Cross of Gold for bravery. This was an outstanding performance in a segment of the movie, which in my opinion, could have been expanded to a full feature. I would rank this performance in Mr. D'Silva's tv/movie role repetoir, as his best in a sensitive role, which I have been lucky enough to finally see.

What's next?

You lucky Brits had the opportunity to see Darrell D'Silva in the Rose Tattoo at the National Theatre.

I wasn't able get to London in time to see this performance but hope to find Darrell in performace in September. Let me know where I can find him performing in Sept-Oct. email me!

Watch for his next releases within the next month or so in:

A VERY BRITISH SEX SCANDAL - Brits, check your tv listings. First aired in July 2007 *

To Be First the story of the first human heart transplant. *

*Doubtful to see USA release anytime soon.