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Picture
L'Occupation
by Peter Finlay
Dixon Studio, Palace Theatre, Westcliff on Sea
21st-25th March 2017

REVIEW of L'OCCUPATION, by Tom King
WORLD stage premieres in Southend are not exactly commonplace. I can't recall reviewing a previous one since at least the time that the Queen came to the throne. Victoria, eh, whatever happened to her?

So quite a steamhead of anticipation had built up in advance of L'Occupation, the new play by Leigh playwright and director Peter Finlay. L'Occupation opened this week at the Palace, still hot from the word processor, and the anticipation translated directly into bums on seats. The entire run was pretty well sold out before opening night. Could this new baby possibly live up to its build-up?

The answer, broadly, is yes, it does. L'Occupation – the title refers to the period of Nazi rule in World War 2 Paris - is gripping and impressive, funny at times, at times shocking, at others quite stirring. 

The most striking aspect is the scale of Mr Finlay's ambition.

Your typical home-grown play consists of two characters in a seedy bedsit, arguing about HIV for two hours.
L'Occupation, by contrast, has a big cast, an epic theme, and an interwoven bundle of narratives that sprawl across half a decade. Appropriately for a production staged by the Southend Shakespeare Company, its approach is Shakespearean. In true Bard-like fashion, it carries you across an enormous span of diverse human experience. In common with Shakespeare's history plays, it tracks momentous historic events by showing how they impact the lives of a cross-section of ordinary people.

Above all, Mr Finlay writes great characters. He has the ability to convey the essence of the people on stage with a few choice lines and well-contrived bits of stage business. The gallery of personalities, as brought to life by this playwright, is a rich one. They are led by the flint-hearted and cynical war widow Madame Bonheur (Joanne Seymour), motto: “There's no such thing as a bad franc”, who runs her cafe single-handed. For her, the war has proved a blessing, Her drunken, philandering husband has got himself shot dead (“in the arse”, while running away), and the German soldiers who come to the cafe pay good money, and show respect.

Then there is the garrulous full-time reminiscer Manu (John Newell), a decrepit former train-driver who has been a daily fixture at the cafe for longer than anyone can remember; the travelling sales rep (Dave Lobley) drinking away his expenses account at a corner table; the hard-working and humorous prostitute (Tracey-Anne Bourne); the snotty, lonely officer's wife with both drink and attitude problems (Vanessa Osborn); and the sensitive musician Andy Withers), reduced to playing in the cafe's band in order to earn a crust.
You could run up against any of these characters in an English pub, but the difference is that these people are French, and caught up in the agonies and humiliations of defeat and occupation.

History has dealt all these people a bad hand. Each of them has to find a way to survive. Some do so heroically, some in vile fashion.
Of course, there is an implicit question underlying all of this. It is never spelled out, but it doesn't need to be. The Cafe Bonheur, depicted in the intimacy of the Dixon Studio's performing space, is a claustrophobic place, and as audience and characters eyeball one another, you have to ask: what if that had been me? And you thank God for living in a country that has not been occupied since 1066.

L'Occupation deals with subjects such as the Holocaust and French collusion with it, and the bloody period of injustice and score-settling that followed the liberation of Paris. These are indeed heavy themes. Yet while it covers dark times, L'Occupation is not a glum play. Its treatment of human nature is warm and often amusing, and even the Germans are depicted in a way that shows understanding rather than knee-jerk condemnation.

I had my concerns about what seemed the play's momentum in the first act, but time spent on building characters and atmosphere pays off as the narrative kicks into action. The Resistance sets up a base in the cafe. A traitor is uncovered, and meets a sticky end. A Jewish girl takes refuge. Madame Bonheur proves not to be so cynically self-interested after all. Then comes the final, explosive climax, excitement combined with tragedy, as the Cafe Bonheur becomes part of the frontline in the liberation of the city.

There is one other element that gives L'Occupation a whole extra level of oomph-power – the music. Ali Graves and Megan Terry do great work as the singing hoofers of the Cafe Bonheur, a chorus-line of two. They take to the cafe's tiny rostrum at regular intervals to perform a wide selection of songs of the period, supported by the SSC's onstage band. For much of the play, their job is to provide atmosphere and light relief, but towards the end, their stage act becomes bound up in the wider action. A brilliant device.

L'Occupation marks the launch of a definite new dramatic talent, and Southend Shakespeare Company's ensemble work, always a joy to observe, does the the playwright proud. So does the director, but then you would expect that, since he is one Peter Finlay.

​
L'Occupation
Palace Theatre (Dixon Studio)
Nightly at 7.45pm until Sat March 25, mat Sat 3pm
Tickets: southendtheatres.org.uk 01702 351135

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