Great to receive this review from Lois, who was so moved by this events at the Minghella Film Festival, that she felt compelled to put pen to paper / finger to keyboard and submitted this so soon after the event. There’s a chance to witness another radio play today, ‘Eyes Down Looking‘ at 3pm today as well as other Minghella activities.
Watching the actors perform live Anthony Minghella’s radio play, ‘Cigarettes and Chocolate’ this afternoon at Quay Arts, I now fully realise why only very few among us can claim to be ‘professional actors’. With just two hours rehearsal, the cast of seven, many from the original performance back in 1988, gave the play the justification it deserved with their outstanding performances.
Being a lover of radio drama and the mental images it conjures, being able to watch the performance live added an extra colour to the experience, and I was soon lost in Anthony’s world of frustration, sadness and humour, a rich tapestry that was created from his own life experiences.
Opening: Gemma’s answer phone message
The play started with a playback from Gemma’s answer phone, pretty ordinary messages that only hint at something more, from a friend wanting the her to go flat hunting, to a lover wanting to make a ‘visit’ and other friends and family wondering why she is not ringing them back. As it happens, she has put up a wall of silence, refusing to speak to anyone and failing to let on why. All Gemma wants to do is sit at home with her cat and listen to Bach’s Matthew Passion over and over again.
Snippets of conversations between Gemma’s friends and one-on-one heart-to-hearts that her friends have when they visit her are central to the play. Because of Gemma’s silence, her friends can only hold a one sided conversation ,which almost inevitably end up with them making some sort of confession to her, so desperate are they to fill the silence.
Gemma’s ability to get her friends to pour out their hearts is ironically reflected in a scene where one of her friends does the same to his friend’s home help, apparently a psychiatrist in her home country, although the home help actually says very little at all.
Emotional turmoil
During their discussions, which only take place as a result of Gemma’s silence, we learn the happy news that the flat-hunting friend is pregnant but is also in emotional turmoil as the father seems unwilling to support her, offering her an uncertain future, her friend’s husband is in love with her and her boyfriend is also sleeping with another of her best friends.
Gemma’s eccentricities does not finish with her silence as we learn with a wonderful monologue how she befriended a female vagrant while out at a concert (Bach’s Matthews Passion makes a re-appearance here) and along with a jet-lagged American in tow, took them all around London to find the vagrant a decent meal, only to end up dumping her in a MacDonalds miles from where she was found.
Thought provoking
It is this reparative theme of the bitter with the sweet that makes this play very thought provoking and sad, as well as humorous with a light hearted observation on life. We only learn right at the end why Gemma has been holding her tongue for so long (I will not give the game away, only to say that the cigarettes and chocolate might be a clue).
Gemma gives a final monologue to the audience, observing that over time, we think that we are making changes for the better, but we are so caught up with our own lives that actually real change does not happen at all. There is still war, famine and disaster. It is perhaps only when we are silent that we can actually start to ‘listen’.
A privilege
I would like to say on a personal note how wonderfully privileged I feel to be able to experience the Minghella Film Festival, which is very much a celebration of Anthony’s life, right on my very own doorstep. A big thank you to the Minghella family for making this possible.
