The story is well known thanks to the book, the movie, the poster and an unscripted I’m walking here from Dustin Hoffman. Add to that the knowledge of the Director John Clancy and the writer Tim Fountain, my expectations were stacked up.

I wasn’t even in a particularly good mood and the initial country tunes didn’t bode well. Tops 3 minutes later I was hooked. The songs changed to Dylan and particularly actors Charles Aitken (Joe) and Con O’Neill (Ratzo) gave their all. Other characters equally erased memories from the pages and celluloid and I recommend this play to anyone over 16 as well done sex scene doesn’t deserve their nervous giggles.

The stage setting deserves a mention: it’s swiftly and seamlessly changed, and perfectly befitting this essentially timeless story of two outcasts finding comfort in each other. At the end many were sniffling and if not for the lights coming up, the applause would deservedly have lasted a bit longer.

Kirsten Nielsen

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 19th, 2006 at 10:01 am and is filed under Theatre Reviews 2006. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.