Theatre / Reviews
Review: Caitlin, Alma Tavern & Theatre – ‘It’s a remarkable performance’
Caitlin Macnamara was a dancer. Living in London in 1936, dancing at the London Palladium and sitting as a model for Augustus John, she had her whole life before her. Then she met Dylan Thomas in a pub.
Dropping his drunken head in her lap, he told her he loved her and would marry her. She fell for him not knowing what a sentence she had just been served.
In this 60 minute play, gorgeously written by Mike Kenny with lines reminiscent of the man himself, Christine Kempell shows us what it took not only to be a woman trapped in the economics of marriage and motherhood at that time, but also what it felt like living in the shadow of a Peter Pan man-child whose genius excused his behaviour.
is needed now More than ever
Christine Kempell in Caitlin – photo: Summer Dean
Kenny brings Caitlin to shocking and immediate life in a script aching with love and sadness.
The Alma Tavern & Theatre – one of the jewels in Bristol theatre history – is an intimate space with a basic tech spec, and this play is sparingly staged. But director Steve Elias takes us to the beach, various pubs, maternity wards, cottage kitchens and a New York sanitorium with the bare minimum of multi-purpose props, and the most inventive use of a blanket.
Kempell is totally engaging. After a slightly over-wrought start (not unlike the description she gives of Thomas’ early performances in the US) she quickly relaxes into her skin. She moves with a dancer’s grace between youthful joy and embittered anger as Caitlin’s life is laid bare.
Christine Kempell in Caitlin – photo: Summer Dean
Caitlin drinks to excess, she leaves her child, she has booze-fuelled sex with any man she chooses and yet we root for her the whole time because Kempell invites us in to her heart and challenges us to judge her.
In her final moments after Thomas’ death, she reverts to the original innocence behind the hardened shell she had developed in the light of his betrayal and abandonment.
It’s a remarkable performance, of which Kempell and Elias should be proud.
Christine Kempell in Caitlin – photo: Summer Dean
Caitlin is at the Alma Tavern & Theatre on January 27-28 at 8pm. Tickets are available at www.tickettailor.com.
Main photo: Christine Kempell
Read more: Review: Embers! A new scratch night, Alma Tavern & Theatre – ‘A cornucopia of acting delights’
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