Ruth Rendell‘s Gallowglass at the Palace Theatre Southend Review

Reviewed by Amanda Gazzard

Gallowglass is the premiere of the stage adaptation of a Ruth Rendell thriller which was written as Barbara Vine.

The scene is set in 1990 and the play opens with Joe who is ready to throw himself in front of train, but Sandor comes to the rescue and saves his life. It becomes apparent very quickly that Sandor feels he is owed a debt for saving Joe’s life and stated very loudly “I saved your life, so your life belongs to me now.” Sandor is very domineering character while Joe who is clearly tormented with mental health issues is shy and easily influenced by all the attention.

In the first half you spend a lot of time with Sandor and Joe as the plot begins to unravel as Sandor plots to kidnap Nina!!

Five years previous Nina was kidnapped in Italy and was held to ransom. Nina was successfully released and now on her third husband she has become a virtual prisoner by choice in her own lavish home, Jareds, which is a grand Suffolk country estate. Nina lives in fear of history repeating itself. Her much older husband ensures they have all of the latest security devices, guard dogs etc. and he employs Paul Garnett as her personal driver.

Sandor and Joe move to Suffolk to begin their surveillance on Nina. Joe’s ‘tart’ foster sister Tilley shows up who is clearly led by money and sex is initiated into the plan. Tilly improves the plan of how and when to kidnap Nina and is clearly driven by the how large the ransom could be.

Sonder (Joe Eyre) portrays his character with so much passion; it felt at times he was over acting which dampened some of the scenes slightly. Joe (Dean Smith) depicted a person with struggling mental health problems well and clearly showed how vulnerable he actually was. Tilly (Rachael Hart) brought life and laughter to the stage and if it was not for this character being introduced it would have made for a very dull first half. Garnett (Paul Opacic) and Jessica (Eva Sayer) played a loving father – daughter relationship and I felt Sayer illustrated her character as a 11-year-old girl very well. Nina’s (Florence Caddy) romantic relations with Garnett were at times flat and it felt they were just going through the motions. Ralph (Richard Walsh) was sophisticated and depicted his character well.

I felt the pace was steady and was easy to follow but it lacked tension especially in the first half. The second half picked up pace as the story unfolded as Sonder’s relationship with Joe became more abusive and Nina’s relationship with Garnett became more passionate but as a whole I struggled to connect emotionally with the characters.

The performance which was approximately 2 hours 40 minutes long and I would have liked to of experienced gripping twists and plots which Ruth Rendell was renowned for, but it felt as though it didn’t all add up.

The story moves from different locations and the set designs are very clever and detailed very well. Michael Lunney incorporates a split stage to facilitate 2 detailed sets at any one time and effective back drops using projections combined with ingenious sound design were integrated for the outside scenes such as the station platforms and the beach.

Overall it was enjoyable performance and I would be wrong to say I did not like it, but I walked away thinking it could have been so much more.

The Palace Theatre does not have any on sight parking but there is ample street parking surrounding the theatre.

Rating: 3/5

Tickets cost from £24 to £33.50 (booking fees may apply).

Gallowglass is at the Palace Theatre in Southend from Tuesday 24th April 2018 to Saturday 28th April 2018, for more information or to book tickets visit southendtheatres.org.uk or call the box office on 01702 351135.

Palace Theatre, 430 London Road, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, SS0 9LA | 01702 351135