Claw
Claw
Author: Howard Barker
Directors: Matthew Hartley and Dorothy Feaver
OFS, 31st May–4th June, 7.30pm
A white-clad figure glows in the spotlight, describing the beauty and the precision of his trade. He is, unexpectedly, a hangman. The servants of a Kafkaesque institution are rendered disturbing by their humanity, estranged from any straightforward ‘message’ so that individuals may extricate moral meanings for themselves. Jack Hawkins delivers a flawless performance as Biledew, whose optimism is gradually eroded by social injustice and domestic abuse.
Sick of government oppression and Marxist delusions, Biledew reinvents himself as a pimp, ascending the social ladder by bringing it down to his own level of perversion. However, Barker also encourages us to question what we mean by ‘perversion’. The production flags here; Clapcott and his wife trading insults without the acerbic contempt and sharpness which Barker’s script demands.
Nevertheless, the pimp’s altercation with former call-girl, Christine, smartly collapses our moral judgement of the anti-hero rather than solidifying it. Sophie Kainradl balances justified indignation at his abuse, and vacuous envy of his superior fortune. For all the abuse that she has suffered, Christine’s ambitions of social advancement are scarcely different to Biledew’s; she has simply been less successful in realising them.
Betrayed by Clapcott, Biledew is then imprisoned in an arcane institution, guarded by the deranged hangman and a terrorist. Luke Parker and Adam Perchard are absolutely superb in these roles, sprinkling their monologues with wry humour and pathos. The production feels uneven in places, but this is perhaps Barker’s point, persistently undermining the audience’s expectations.
26th May 2005