5 STARS, October 23-29. "I think the moment I properly committed to this play was when Ivan delivered an eloquent segment that basically came down to: ‘See, everybody sh*ts. Why don’t we talk about it?’"
A Scottish man waxing philosophical about death in Merton Arts Space (the back area of Wimbledon Library), may seem pretty far removed from 19th century Russia, the original setting for Tolstoy’s novella, The Death of Ivan Ilyich.
But it’s no challenge too great for the Attic Theatre Company, it seems. Adapted by acclaimed playwright Stephen Sharkey (BBC Radio 4’s All of You on the Good Earth), and performed as a one man show by Jack Tarlton, Ivan is a production that commands from the outset.
Merton Arts Space is one of those ‘blank canvas’ halls, where how much you make of it comes down to how imaginative you’re prepared to be. I have seen talks there in the past and thought nothing much of it at all. But a clever arrangement of circular dining tables, where you take your seat amongst seven or eight strangers, bathed in a celestial glow from the lanterns in the middle, is most effective.
Tarlton, who plays Ivan, a high-court judge coming to terms with his terminal illness and the nature of his own mortality, enters through the back doors. Throughout his 45-minute monologue, he flits between tables, and the audience take it in turns to feel the full pelt of his reflections directed exclusively towards them. It was perhaps unfortunate that the first table Tarlton approached upon entry were a group of nervy-looking track suited teenagers, who giggled uncomfortably as Tarlton loomed over them, asking them to confront the fact of their unavoidable demise. It was a credit to his skill as a performer that he simply changed tack and laughed along with them. It had the dual effect of putting them at ease, whilst also seeming pretty ominous. And this was a theme of his performance as Ivan – the ability to shrewdly bounce off whatever responses we threw at him. I got the feeling that no two performances would be quite the same.
Now, spending an evening thinking about death may not seem all that fun, but fear not, Sharkey’s adaption has humour in all the right places, and I found myself giggling guiltily throughout. I think the moment I properly committed to this play was when Ivan delivered an eloquent segment that basically came down to: ‘See, everybody sh*ts. Why don’t we talk about it?’
Rife with all the questions you don’t want to ask yourself on a Sunday evening but probably should, this was an all-round excellent production that I can’t recommend enough. Beg, borrow, steal.
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