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Leisure
TJf Drama Music Art BwJis Radio
The Arts
Australian play In UK
Doubtful
reception
LONDON,
Thursday (AAP).
- The main
trouble with the
Australian outback
play, Kain, which
opened at the
Yvonne Arnaud
Theatre at Guild
ford. Surrey, on
Tuesday night, was
that the first act
was not strongly
enough connected
with the second
act, the Financial
Times theatre critic
said.
"The iiulhor (Australian
playwright Alan Poolman)
seems to have had trouble
with this act, for he has
padded it out with all sorts
of extraneous hits of com
edy that succecd only in
holding up the action."
The paper said that the
light in which Kain (Keith
Michcll) kills his brother
Rattler (Alan While) "is
certainly a melodramatic
piece but Alan Poolman
has worked up the atmos
phere with some ability.
He is much helped by an
evocative set designed by
John Truscott that brings
the hot dry climate right
into the. theatre."
Mr Michell brought the
right "devil-may-care man
ner to his part, and he is
well matched in the first act
by Alan White . .
The Times said the play
"draws its inspiration as
much from the Bible as
the sun-baked outback in
which it "is set."
Though Mr Poolman
wrote "fluently and enter
tainingly." his play seems
more like an over-calcula
ted modernisation of a
similar Iheme than a trust
ful study of primitive pas
sions.
"However, there is
enough sign of talent here
to make us hope that in
Mr Poolman's next play i
there will be more freshly
observed characterisation
and less sense of action
being tailored to suit the
demands of a grandiose
theme."
The paper said John
Truscott's magnificent set,
"dust-caked and authentic,"
helps enormously.
"So. too. does Keith
MichelI's vigorous projec
tion of Kain's sexual re
pression.
"Though Mr Michell is
forced to play the whole of
the first act literally at
fever pitch, he does so
with considerable convic
tion."
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