Pitcairn at The Minerva, Chichester
It sounds like an engaging idea for a play – follow the story of the mutiny on the Bounty and ask, what happened next? Richard Bean’s Pitcairn does just that, showing us Fletcher Christian’s brave new world and watching it unravel as two disparate cultures try to stamp their own mark on the little island.
Unfortunately Bean doesn’t seem to be entirely sure what tone he is reaching for. One minute bawdry, the next sweet and sincere comedy, and peppered with hints at the brutal reality of trying to set up a new civilisation. Indeed watching the cast try to prise interaction out of the reserved front rows of the Chichester audience is at times cringe-worthy… at times we feared a sea shanty singalong or someone being plucked from their seat to do a tribal dance. This forced breaking of the fourth wall will work wonderfully in the open air of The Globe when the play moves there, but here in the cosy Minerva it feels jarring and breaks the flow of the piece.
For all that though, there are some excellent performances here. Tom Morley’s Fletcher Christian is an idealist beaten down by the wanton debauchery and petty disputes of his colleagues. His descent from the prim upright officer to the ostracized crank of the community carries the piece. Samuel Edward-Cook’s Quintal is a brutal beast, a drunken mad-dog who threatens the English and rapes the Tahitian women. It’s a fearsome performance, at odds with anything else on the stage.
Eben Figueiredo’s Tahitian boy serves as both narrator and as the heart of the play, whilst the rest of the “Indian” characters are largely drawn with broad strokes (by the writer, not the actors). The strange obsession with having the women talk constantly about sex seems more like the fantasy of a dirty old man than a relevant theatrical device.
Max Stafford-Clark drills his company and to his credit everyone seems to have a good handle on their character, even when the script gives them little to work with. There are the beginnings of a really fascinating piece here, but this feels more a first draft than a finished article.
