A three-handed play with a demolition engineer as a central character has opened in London.
I don’t normally write about my own personal life in these pages – let’s face it, who wants to read about me – but last night I had the good fortune to be invited to attend a production of Jez Butterworth’s Parlour Song at the Almeida Theatre in North London, a play in which the central character is, in fact, a demolition engineer.
Toby Jones, fresh from his role in the Oscar-nominated Frost Nixon movie, plays the central character and demolition man, Ned, a man for whom precision is everything. Jones is ably supported by Andrew Lincoln who plays Ned’s next door neighbour Dale, and by Amanda Drew as Ned’s long-suffering wife.
As someone who is not a regular theatre-goer, I will not attempt to do justice to the set (which is superb), the script (which is even better), nor the play itself (which is well-observed and funny, sad, dark and poignant in roughly equal measure).
However, what I can comment upon is the industry feel that Toby Jones brings to his role. Jones is quite clearly a very talented actor but, speaking to him after the show, it was clear that he had drawn a great deal of inspiration from his pre-production discussions with C&D Consultancy’s John Woodward. Indeed, having greeted Woodward like a long-lost friend, Jones explained how Woodward had helped with the thought process that had gone into creating his character, Ned; how Woodward had explained the thought processes that take place before, during and after an explosive demolition contract.
Speaking after the show, John Woodward (who even gets a mention in the production thank yous section of the programme) explained that he had been invited to meet Jones, his fellow actors and director Ian Rickson several months ago, to offer suggestions on script changes but to also explain the mindset of a demolition engineer. “They picked up on such minute details; it was incredible,” Woodward says. “Little things like the fact that demolition men tend to eat on the road, the fact that successful demolition men have a love of good quality wrist watches, and even that split-second delay between starting an implosion and the blast actually happening.”
As I have said previously, I am not a theatre critic. But if you’re close to London and want a good night of demolition-related entertainment, I would highly recommend Parlour Song.
