Scene from Double Take Theatre's production of "Dealing with Clair" at Sala Fenix, June 2019. Photo courtesy of Double Take Theatre.
On May 31st, Barcelona’s own Double Take Theatre premiered its interpretation of Martin Crimp’s 1988 play Dealing with Clair at Sala Fènix in Raval. The play itself was inspired by the still unsolved cold case of Ms. Suzy Lamplugh, a London estate agent who disappeared in 1986 at the age of 25, after leaving her West London offices to meet a client known only as Mr. Kipper. Eight years later, she was officially declared dead, presumed murdered, but no one has ever been brought to justice. That very fact sets the energy level at a stronger dial when a viewer knows it, but assuming most don’t—as the play is now three decades old—it is undeniable that Crimp’s unique jargon and sardonic sense of wordy humor is even more pertinent today in the age of ego and selfies.
The intimacy of a cozy venue like Sala Fènix put everyone directly into the affair. With the sparest of furnishings, director David Adeane assembled the camaraderie of a tight group of actors who kept their characters’ voices on fleek and, by any account, embodied them to sometimes creepy aplomb. In that vein, I must also add that there were moments where an overreach of acting crept in, usually from the two male leads. But, considering the unexpected thresholds suddenly crossed in the play’s last act, it was fairly easy to emotionally attach (or not) to the characters, which is always the mark of a skilled dramatic creator and interpreter. Anarosa de Eizaguirre Butler masterfully played the titular character of Clair, easing her way through subtle nuances of naïveté and awareness, smoothly endearing herself to the audience with her “every-girl” niceties and easy-on-the-eyes looks. She is in complete change of life mode when we meet her, lazily chatting on the phone, new real estate job in tow and with a little flat just above a train line. The city is London; the time is the late 80s, and perhaps that is exactly what makes the script come alive. Witty banter and knowing cheap shots are easily sewn into the fabric of an already-lived time, so we know, just as Thatcherism was coming to an end, that everything was going to be okay … right?
Meanwhile, Mike and Liz (actors Billy Jeffries and Margo Ford, respectively) are a young, somewhat restless couple, embodying the image we all recognize as somewhat WASP-y and wannabe bourgeois, as clearly middle class tendencies loom large. But those social norms don’t end there; flirtation flits its way here and there, as when husband Billy does so with their live-in, Italian au pair Anna (Julieta Moras), who assists in baby care whilst always bedecked in loungewear. Meanwhile, Liz, played with ease and almost Meryl-like certainty by Ford, seems casually aware yet nonplussed with her husband’s artless, sometimes lackadaisical manner of house-selling with wink-wink nods to his wandering eye. He is all the while trying to score a nice deal that may see them selling their property to the tune of a cash-buy option, which may or may not come to fruition.
As any home buyer or dealer knows, cash options (perhaps less so today but still) always ring in more joy to any interested party involved, so when the dapper and seemingly charming James (Edward Joe Bentley) enters the scene with a suave lean, it’s hard not to notice the beguiling way in which the play takes a seedy turn into egotistical fortitude. James’ lush way of speaking in almost bemused tones, while often dancing around a subject, is quasi-sociopathic in nature, so the actor must have either taken great leaps to touch that character’s surface or it resides safely tucked away within, bringing its lively self to the surface once the act is required. Either way, the performance is as chilling as it is repugnant; the foreshadowing to the rest of the story is, in a word, brilliant.
I shan’t give away any spoilers here, for a hope of a continued run later this year will certainly draw a host of other spectators, since this quick-run was a sold-out success every night. Add in the trifecta performance of Samuel Sargeant in a variety of roles, and under Adeane’s astute direction, what we have here is a well-executed piece of theatre. It gives credence to the belief that the state of the world in which we now live is a mere symptom of many years living in a squandered element, often glossed over with a fine sheen of capitalistic, usually feigned, purity. What stuck with me as I left the theatre is that, like most plays or films I love, it gave the viewer the chance to establish what they think happens at story’s end … Such is life.
Lucas Cavazos was born in Texas and raised between there and Brooklyn, NY. He studied History and Rhetoric at the University of Texas at Austin and was a workshop student and actor at HB Acting Studio in NYC for three years. He moved to Barcelona nearly eight years ago. Tune in to English Radio BCN every Tuesday at 11:00 (106.9FM) to hear Lucas on The Club, or follow his cinema blog, "A Bitter Life Through Cinema."