The Bear - Angela Clerkin & Improbable Theatre, Brighton Studio, Brighton Festival

This review was first published on the public reviews.

One of the most common themes in the novels of American writer John Irving is the constant appearance of a bear. He claims no great meaning behind the use of bears, for him growing up in America, they are commonplace.
Wild bears are not, I assume, common in the North London setting inhabited by Angela Clerkin, the central protagonist in The Bear, written and played by Angela Clerkin. Angela is an out of work actor who gets a job as a clerk and in doing so becomes embroiled in a Noiresque detective story, tracking down a mysterious bear who could be the main suspect in a murder.

I don’t know if the real life Angela really has worked as a clerk (although her surname would suggest it may be a play on words) but it feels as if the line between on and off stage Angela is blurred and its this blurring that they both foster and use to their advantage. There are a number of hilarious moments of bathos when Angela cuts from Angela; femme fatale in a hand held spotlight, complete with smoky voice over to Angela, straight talking Irish gal who shares with the audience her hatred of weddings and love of Irish dancing. It’s this ability to contain a whole number of, sometimes seemingly contradictory selves within us that lies at the heart of The Bear; everyone who seems like an angel also contains a beast within. This is continued quite literally by Angela’s co star Guy Dartnell, Improbable associate and appropriately bear like in stature. Guy plays ‘all the other characters’ with affectionate subtlety, my favourite being chain smoking aunt Gloria, complete, obviously, with fake fur coat.

The set, designed by War Horse’s Rae Smith is suitably practical, doubling up as a various London locations. The cells of the Old Bailey are (not so easily, on the night) transformed by a brown fur curtain into a cabaret stage. This is accompanied by clever sound design by Mark Cunningham and composer Nick Powell, often extending the space beyond the four walls, blurring the boundaries of the real and imagined. The sound of Angela’s heels walking across the floor upstairs was a particularly effective example of this.

The show was bursting full of ideas and keen to entertain; a spot of Irish dancing here, a blues routine there, an Irish sing-along complete with puppet show and the overall feeling was one of warm affability, almost to the point where it becomes hard to believe that either one of them could contain the explosive rage of a bear. Even in the ferocious final fight, the sense of understated humanity was present as the bear mutters exhaustedly ‘oh just f*** off’ in the manner of a brother fighting a relentless younger sister. Yet, maybe that was the point, maybe even here, in the city, the same as in the wild, bears are common place, you just have to seek them out, or perhaps they may even come and find you.

http://www.thepublicreviews.com/brighton-festival-the-bear-brighton-studio-theatre-brighton/