Ana Inés Jabares Pita (designer), Philip Pinsky (sound design and composition), Chris Davey (lighting design)
Michael Thomson (Richard/ company) and Andrea Volpetti (Francesco/ company).
Said to be Spark’s favourite and self-confessed creepiest novel, her short, fragmented and chillingly memorable tale, The Driver’s Seat, was also adapted into 1974 film, Identikit starring Elizabeth Taylor but this is its first stage adaptation. It is, to say the least, a challenge to adapt this layered and subversive work of crime fiction to the stage but the task has been undertaken with all-round brilliance by the National Theatre of Scotland.
Precisely set on 17 June 1970, the story is around Lise, a late twentyish office worker who is full of anticipation for her forthcoming holiday from her anonymous northern city to an equally anonymous southern European city. She leaves her colleagues, a dark and distant office group, with a detached, careless air as she focusses on her forthcoming break. Like any young woman, she wants new clothes for her holiday and Lise, like some young women, is also on the lookout for Mr Right as part of her adventure. She is focussed on cancelling out her own normal anonymity with a set of garish clothes guaranteed to draw attention and fix her in the memories of those who cross her path on her way to her destination and as it turns out, destiny.
Spark’s complex style of writing that’s full of time shifts is reflected throughout not least due to the fantastic design from 2013 Linbury Prize winner Ana Inés Jabares Pita. Office, airport, crime scene, department store, hotel all appear with fine imagination and believability. A large brick wall serves as a screen for giant straight to camcorder shots showing, among many close ups, Lise’s face etched with anxiety as she goes on her mission. Timelines appear on post-its and a tourist map of the imaginary city has her fatal route chillingly marked on screen to terrific effect. Chris Davey’s lighting and Philip Pinsky’s atmospheric sounds like the haunting ticks that mirror the play’s precise timelines and his mood-changing music add to the play's unsettling ambience.
The ensemble cast is strong under Laurie Sansom’s direction but from the get go, Morven Christie with her tense, edgy laughter as she separates from her suited colleagues nails this tragic character with her skewed concept of control. She moves with Lise the fantasist who becomes a widow, a multilingual academic, an international traveller speaking believed franglais to an innocent South African with ease. Italian actor Ivan Castiglione brings a larger than life vitality and energy to his roles, particularly on a manic taxi ride and Ryan Fletcher stands out as Bill the macrobiotic devotee.
The text is couched in secretive language as Spark’s clues are scattered in fragments throughout revealing evidence in this alarming and seriously shocking portrayal of the result of one young woman’s isolation and loneliness where sex is a dangerous, joyless affair.
Spark’s novel The Driver’s Seat was nominated posthumously for the Lost Man Booker Prize, a one-off prize to honour books that missed the chance to win the Booker Prize in 1970. Its World Premiere stage adaption of a lonely young woman’s dark and disturbing journey is more than worth getting in to your driver’s seat to catch.
13 to 27 June 2015
Matinees: Sat 20 June & Wednesday 24 June at 2pm
Accessible Performances: Sat 20 June at 2pm (AD with touch tour prior to event), Sat 20 June at 7.30pm (captioned performance), Tue 23 June at 7.30pm (BSL- Deaf Theatre Club event)
Post-Show Discussion: Wednesday 24 June (7.30pm)
Tour continues to Tramway, Glasgow - 2 to 4 July 2015