February 2, 1998: Townsend, Terms of Abuse

Hampstead Theatre

A first play for the theatre by a writer with some television experience. Some promise here, mostly in a very well realized central character, extremely well played by Susan Sylvester: Mandy, a woman who has miraculously survived a rape by a man who turns out to be a serial killer. Her greedy brother sells her story to a sleazy tabloid for a cut of the money, but Mandy soon finds she will have to re-live the experience by testifying about it in court. A point of some interest is the flash-back-plus effect achieved by having Mandy’s younger self played by a separate actress, Emma Bird; they eventually meet — and party together. The lines between fantasy and realism are blurred here, but not productively. The two parts of the play — before and after intermission — are ungainly and imbalanced. There is of course the requisite male nudity — Mandy’s teenage son takes a bath, for no perceivable dramatic reason. And the actor playing the reporter for the sleazy tabloid who tries to get it on — and succeeds — with Mandy is miscast and poorly directed.

What, finally, is the play about? The title, Terms of Abuse, has a potential richness that ultimately just turns out to be vague. But Susan Sylvester has presence and talent and is worth seeing in a role that draws out at least some of the self-destructive pathos and complex reaching for pleasure and love that keeps this character from being merely another abused young woman on whom tabloid journalism notoriously and routinely feeds.

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

An American Playgoer in London by Joseph Donohue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book