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How entertaining? ★★★☆☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 2 September 2012
This a theatre review of JUMPY. |
“My marriage is held together by habit.”
A poisonous teen has been done so well recently in Kenneth Lonergan’s modern epic MARGARET. Anna Paquin’s Lisa is far deeper and rounded than Bel Powley’s Tilly here, but Tilly is so vile to live with that you question whether you want children. The actual focus is her mother Hilary (Tamsin Greig), who is surrounded by the obnoxious and self-obsessed and somehow doesn’t have a breakdown. JUMPY deftly covers about two years in about two hours – as Tilly goes from 15 to uni, and Hilary crosses 50. Landmarks for mother and daughter.
A poisonous teen has been done so well recently in Kenneth Lonergan’s modern epic MARGARET. Anna Paquin’s Lisa is far deeper and rounded than Bel Powley’s Tilly here, but Tilly is so vile to live with that you question whether you want children. The actual focus is her mother Hilary (Tamsin Greig), who is surrounded by the obnoxious and self-obsessed and somehow doesn’t have a breakdown. JUMPY deftly covers about two years in about two hours – as Tilly goes from 15 to uni, and Hilary crosses 50. Landmarks for mother and daughter.
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(These five photos by Robert Workman.)
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In a minimalist and constantly changing white set, a nod perhaps to a psychiatric ward, Hilary has to contend with her own aging and attractiveness, while dealing with an ambivalent husband, the fear of daughter’s safety and teen pregnancy (the latter made all the more imperative when Tilly’s BFF has a child at 16), a horny best friend reminding her of her drabness (played by the hilarity-hogging Doon Mackichan), and other parents. The scenes are bite-size and excruciatingly funny. The banter is a joy, and the players perform on all cylinders. Grieg may constantly end up in sad-sack roles, but she manages to make each one different.
The problem I had with JUMPY was that the characters were all stereotypes. I’d seen them all before, and their issues were all predictable: teen rebellion, menopausal angst, male mid-life crises, etc. Writer April De Angelis and director Nina Raine clearly understand how to make the most of their cast and production, which makes not striving for a fresher spin on staples more of a shame.
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