Sliding With Suzanne ( Archived )

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Director Max Stafford-Clark, Designer Julian McGowan, Lighting Johanna Town, Sound Paul Arditti

Assistant Director Jacqui Somerville, Choreographer Lisa Spackman

Cast: Loo Brealey, Bryan Dick, Monica Dolan, Roger Frost, June Watson, Danny Worters

‘…The Suzanne of the title is one of life’s feckless no-hopers. Despite having two A-levels to her name, this 35-year-old slattern has never been able to hold down a job and blames her lack of success on the fact that only the “posh kids” prosper. She’s concluded instead that being a paid foster mother to screwed-up kids is the easiest way to survive, though time spent in her care is likely to leave her charges more screwed up than ever.

‘Her present “son” Luka, 16, spends most of his time worrying about his mum, who doesn’t eat properly, gets drunk and stoned, and stays out till four in the morning. That of course is when Suzanne isn’t having sex with him.

‘In one of the periodic crises in their relationship, Suzanne has fled her filthy London flat to see her old mum in Brighton, who represents all the traditional values her daughter so conspicuously lacks. Needless to say, Suzanne behaves towards her mother like a stroppy teenager, hurling four-lettered abuse at this patient, decent woman, and when mum walks out on her in a convenience store, Suzanne promptly gets off with the 17-year-old shop assistant, Josh, and goes to bed with him. There is however one further complication in Suzanne’s already complex life – she’s pregnant by Luka.

‘Upton is a prolific young dramatist of real gifts. Torrid emotional confrontations are combined with sly, and sometimes outrageous humour and she has seized here on an important truth – the inability of large sections of the pampered thirtysomething generation to grow up. “I want to by happy. What’s wrong with that?” wails Suzanne. The idea that she might have to put in a bit of effort or moral responsibility to achieve that goal appears to be beyond her.

‘…the play sparkily captures the poignant confusion of teenagers brought up by parents who are more infantile than they are (Josh and his 14-year-old sister, Sophie, have a grossly overweight, falling-down drunk of a single dad) and the acting is outstanding.

‘As Suzanne, Monica Dolan is sad, vulnerable and funny as well as monstrous, while Danny Worters and Bryan Dick are spot-on as the gauche teenagers who become bitter rivals for her love. Best of all though is Loo Brealey as Sophie, a perfect, poignant study of adolescent curiosity and sexual confusion.’

DAILY TELEGRAPH

‘…there are several good reasons to see Sliding with Suzanne. One of them is Suzanne herself, an astonishingly vivid, divided character. Half grown woman, half kid lout, utterly clear about the toughness of the system for a working-class singler foster-mother, she’s almost a 21st-century traviata (woman who has gone astray), capable of nobility and self-sacrifice when considering the younger man she loves, a victim of society so lively and strong that she seems very un-victim like indeed. Then there’s Monica Dolan in the role. … I have thought for years: Dolan is one of the best actors in Britain.

‘… Dolan’s… spiritually driven, even in this role about a woman on the slide. She’s funny, intense, shrewd: she brings her whole being to whatever she’s doing, and you never know what she’ll do next.

‘Sliding with Suzanne feels very Stafford-Clark indeed. Like so many plays he’s handled so well, it’s up-to-date social realism with several characters under 20 years old, and his tuning of all the main scenes shows why he has long been one of our greatest directors: the social realism is the basis for acute psychological realism. Bryan Dick, as young Luka, and Loo Brealey, as the younger Sophie, give the kind of performances when you hang on everything they do; and Danny Worters, as Josh, has a kind of heartfelt glow of naivety that’s heart-catching.’

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