Strathpeffer Pavilion, 10 October 2008

The Lesson (photo - Marc Marnie)

THE CLASSIC works of 20th century European theatre have been a staple of the repertoire of the Edinburgh-based benchtours in the course of their twelve-year history as a small-scale touring theatre company (now threatened by the loss of Arts Council funding), and the Highlands & Islands have usually figured on their agenda.

Ibsen, Chekhov and Brecht have all featured in earlier tours, but this is the first time that they have tackled the work of the Rumanian-French playwright Eugène Ionesco. Peter Clerke had initially thought of doing another of the writer’s works, The Chairs, but difficulties in securing rights led them to switch their attention to The Lesson.

The play, originally produced in 1951, is one of the classic texts of the Theatre of the Absurd, the loosely configured movement identified by Martin Esslin in his academic study of that name. He bracketed Ionesco with Samuel Beckett, Arthur Adamov, Jean Genet and later Harold Pinter as exemplars of the style, in which absurdity becomes a controlling principle of the action.

The play revolves around three characters, an older professor (Peter Clerke), his housekeeper (Catherine Gillard), and his new young pupil (Kirstin McLean). The drama is played out in the course of a tutorial in his flat in an unnamed provincial French town, in which the positions of the characters undergoes strange and ultimately shocking changes.

This new production, directed by Gerry Mulgrew (who also directed The Cherry Orchard for the company in 2002) in a translation by Donald Watson, comes across well. Within the imposed restrictions of the absurd dialogue, the actions and motivations of the character are clearly delineated.

The encounter grows increasingly bizarre and dark in tone as the relationship between teacher and pupil undergoes a sinister change. The diffident professor becomes an authoritarian monster, the confident student a terrified victim.

The absurd ramifications of the professor’s rambling discourse on arithmetic, linguistics and philology is often very funny, but his increasingly domineering and threatening manner – with more than a hint of sexual violence as well as brutal authoritarianism – leads to a shocking finale.

The actors pull all of this off in fine style, with a particularly convincing performance in the difficult role of the girl from Kirstin Mclean.

(The Lesson is at The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, 25 October; Fortrose Community Theatre, 29 October; Dornie Hall, 30 October; Rosehall Hall, 31 October; Ardross Community Hall, 1 November.)

© George Mackay, 2008

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