Frozen
Daily Telegraph, Charles Spencer, 5 July 2002…I mean it as a compliment when I say that there were several moments during Bryony Lavery’s astonishing play when I feared I would have to walk out of the theatre. The drama taps into every parent’s nightmare: the fear that your child could fall into the hands of a perverted serial killer. How do you cope in such circumstances, how do you live with the terrible thoughts of what might be happening, or already have happened to your child? …the scientific discussion is fascinating, and obviously well researched, but the play’s chief impact is on the gut and the heart rather than the head. In Bill Alexander’s spare, gripping production at the National’s Cottesloe, the drama initially develops through a series of monologues for the three characters, but then Lavery moves on to dialogue between the shrink and the killer, between the mother and the shrink, and in one of the most powerful scenes I have seen in the theatre this year, between the mother and the man who killed her daughter… …Again and again, the detail of the writing and the emotional truth of the performances knock you for six. Anita Dobson in particular must surely be in line for awards for her remarkable performance as Nancy… …Throughout, Dobson’s reactions are often fascinatingly unpredictable, but there isn’t a single moment in this dramatic tour de force that strikes a false note… …As Agnetha, Josie Lawrence has to combine the rational scientist with the turbulent emotions of a women suffering her own personal grief. She succumbs superbly combining intelligence with a manifestly warm heart, humanising a character who in the hands of a lesser writer and actress might seem clinically detached… …And then there is Tom Georgeson as Ralph. His is a horribly hypnotic presence, and Lavery has devised a chillingly distinctive mode of speech for him, disturbingly cold and matter of fact, and with repeated use of the word “obviously”… …you leave this extraordinary show with the terrifying realisation that you have experienced pity for a serial killer… …Frozen is a truly outstanding play, brilliantly performed Guardian, Michael Billington, 4 July 2002
…Bryony Lavery’s remarkable play…
…the force of Lavery’s play, however, lies in its ability to change hearts and minds… …Lavery’s play…is also flawlessly acted… …Anita Dobson …brilliantly charts Nancy’s progress from frozen emptiness to thawed humanity… …Greeted with pin-drop silence, this is a play that genuinely enlarges one’s understanding. Evening Standard, Nicholas de Jongh, 4 July 2002
…the vivid eloquence of Lavery’s writing and the force of the central performances… …Tom Georgeson’s stupendous Ralph chills the blood… …Anita Dobson’s over glamorous Nancy compellingly charts an astonishing rebirth. The Times, Benedict Nightingale, 5 July 2002
…Maybe it’s morbid curiosity, maybe human sympathy maybe a mixture of the two. But haven’t you, too, wondered what really goes on in the mind and heart of the man driven to kill children and of the parents he hideously bereaves? Those highly charged newspaper interviews and despairing press conferences, one feels, don’t tell the half of it… …Both the murderer and his surviving victims have taken up residence in an infinitely weird, remote country we all hope never to visit. But Bryony Lavery has applied for a visa to that country and used the ensuing trip shatteringly well… …Though Frozen was first staged in Birmingham four years ago, you can see how timely it is –and sadly, sense how topical it’s likely to remain… …Georgeson’s terrifyingly wintry, yet horribly forlorn, Ralph… …this is a brilliant performance and is matched by Dobson’s… …Lavery and her cast make you see the complexity of the issue, clinical as well as moral. They also make you feel the loss, the pain, the unbearable waste. Daily Express, Robert Gore-Langton, July 5 2002
…Anita Dobson, a fine actress, plays Nancy, a mother who has come to terms with the disappearance of her 10 year old daughter 20 years before. We also meet her killer, Ralph, a foul-mouthed, tattooed man with no pity, played with creepy menace by Tom Georgeson… Her journey from rage, grief to forgiveness is the real drama of Lavery’s often harrowing play… …Josie Lawrence is superb as ever… …but this play has its own moral force and I sensed the audience were frozen to their seats… …Bill Alexander directs it beautifully… Daily Mail, 5 July 2002
…What makes Frozen remarkable is the presentation of the self-justified evil person… …It is a brilliant theatrical moment… … it is an absorbing play. At its heart is a debate about moral responsibility: is Ralph capable of understanding his crime? For a long time the answer appears to be a controversial no – until, all of a sudden, it becomes a more reassuring yes… Financial Times, Alastair Macaulay, 5 July 2002
…Perhaps the most amazing feature of Alexander’s production is Josie Lawrence’s performance… …Anita Dobson and Tom Georgeson play their characters with terrific control, intensity, skill…both these performances are still superb: we travel large and painful distances with both… …Frozen is a major event in British theatre.
Frozen finished on: 24 August 2002
