SIZE isn't everything, but for a celebrated, garlanded, and, of course, controversial, piece, Mark Ravenhill's Shopping and F***ing looks awfully small on the stage of the Citizens'. The set is chiefly notable for its false proscenium arch at the back of the playing space, framing panels covering neon lettering that spell out the location (''bedsit'') or the topic under discussion (''money''). Innocent amusement can be had from predicting the next word. It is difficult to fail.
In this space the cast of five range from the willing victim Gary (Charlie Condou) to the casual exploiter Brian (Ian Redford) by way of various degrees of commercial and emotional transaction. The performances vary from the consistent and occasionally moving (Ashley Artus as Robbie), to the confused (Karina Fernandez as Lulu). Oddly, and distractingly, Stephen Beresford's Mark, the pivotal character who inhabits no particular milieu, appears to have borrowed many of his mannerisms from Prime Minister Tony Blair. If this is deliberate, it is hard to say for what effect.
Two years down the line from its premiere, Max Stafford Clark's Out of Joint production has the look of history. The concerns of the play are no less relevant, but ours have moved on, and its appear veiled in kitsch. It is hard to believe that the impression it gave two years ago would be of a kind bastard offspring of The Young Ones and This Life. It somehow cheapens the impact of a piece of live theatre to have to resort to comparisons with television.
Like the stage version of Trainspotting (and there is a sad inevitability about that comparison), S&F has onanistically consumed itself.
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