What's On (London)
Tom Morris
Quilt- Oval House
Naive emotionalism is not to be sniffed at. For the 28,000 people who have made
panels for the Names Project Memorial Quilt to commemorate victims of AIDS, it
is both a matter of life and death and a uniquely powerful political weapon.
The Project now involves a world-wide network of people who make and collect
individual quilts custom-made to the memory of their loved ones. Many include
the favourite poems, favourite shirts, even favourite toys of the people who
have died. The resultant combined quilt is a memorial of immense power, more
human and more living, say its makers, than stone memorials to soldiers and
politicians. It is brilliant, it is colourful, and - in the huge emotionalism
of its appeal - it is triumphantly sentimental.
'Quilt", the musical, has no real setting and precious little plot. It is
a series of first-person stories and songs, each accompanying the making of an
individual quilt panel. These stories are as powerful, direct and naive as the
panels they describe. Each one is performed with naked emotionalism and
unshaking commitment. It is brave - some might say foolish - to adopt the quilt
as a struggle as well as a thematic inspiration for the play, but as each story
arrives, layer after layer after layer, you almost feel that you're looking at
the quilt itself.
There are quirky elements of story and notable performances from Joyce Springer
and Louisa Gummer, but the power of the thing is in the guts of each member of
the excellent ensemble. Supported by Michael Stockler's celebratory score and
the final visual coup of designer Sue Mayes, they provide a politically
irresistible night out.
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