by Martin Krimp
Salberg Studio, Salisbury Playhouse
20 April 2011
Directed by Jo Davies.
Brendan Hughes as Richard (the doctor)
Cate Hamer as Corinne (his wife)
Rebecca Blackstone as Rebecca (the girl)
A: So what did you think of the play?
B: The play?
A: Yes, the play. What did you think of?
B: Do you mean ‘The Country’?
A: Yes, “The Country.” What did you think of it?
A: I found the dialogue repetitive.
B: You found the dialogue repetitive?
A: Exactly. It was repetitive.
B: Why did you find it repetitive?
A: It was full of echo questions, and repeat questions. A lot of the time it sounded like bad ELT dialogue.
B: Bad ELT dialogue?
A: That’s right … bad English Language Teaching dialogue. For example, Corinne says ‘You’re not here.’ and Rebecca says ‘I’m not here? Where am I?’ You couldn’t write that in an ELT book.
B: Why couldn’t you write it in an ELT book?
A: Because it’s unnatural. Most of the dialogue was unnatural. It was leaden and heavy-handed. Every second sentence seemed to be Yes or That’s right or Exactly.
B: You didn’t like the play?
A: I thought it was tedious. I haven’t looked at my watch so often in a play for about three years.
B: Was it the acting?
A: Not at all. All three actors were excellent. They did the very best they could with it.
B: But it was a psychological thriller.
A: A pyschological thriller? Yes, that’s right. That’s what it said on the poster.
B: Was it a psychological thriller?
A: No. Not at all. It wasn’t. It wasn’t a thriller. No.
B: Why wasn’t it?
A: There was scant mystery to it. There was mystery in the first hour, vaguely, until the girl left. The girl brought some degree of menace. She was good. She was very good. But in the end didn’t do anything menacing. The second part had no mystery. And not much sense either.
B: You say it didn’t have much sense?
A: Exactly. After the girl leaves, for some reason Corinne comes on in a dress and gets rained on. It’s a wet place the Salberg Studio. They’re fond of their rain pipe. Seen it before. Then Richard comes on and gives her a dressing gown and a towel. What the *!@* was that about? I don’t know. Wet T-shirt contest?
B: There were three in the cast?
A: Three? Yes, three. That’s right. But there were never more than two on at the same time. It was a series of stilted dialogues, going nowhere with a fake enigmatic ending. I don’t know what it was doing in a theatre. It felt like a radio play to me. The whole thing lacked theatricality.
B: It lacked theatricality?
A: Yes. Exactly. That’s right.