Lilies review, Courtyard

It is extraordinary that a small theatre company can assemble a cast of ten and put on a complex production for five nights only at Hoxton's Courtyard Theatre, but that is what Sinister Shadow has been done with an unexpectedly current translation of Michel Marc Bouchard's homoerotic play, Lilies.

Boy zone

Lilies begins with the meeting of old adversaries in a prison confessional. It is 1912. Old lag, Simon Doucet, has arranged an in-house entertainment for Bishop Bilodeau. Thus begins a play within a play about their shared past: a story glancing through paedophilia within the Catholic Church, the abandonment of women, forbidden love, family loyalty and, above all, the pain of loss. What key does the Bishop hold to the fates of those whose stories we are seeing?

Inevitably, given the restrictions on budget and time, there is some miscasting under Roderick D Morgan's direction. The first twenty minutes are excruciating, but when the impressive young team at the heart of the play moves into place they slowly and surely draw us into a world of contradictions. The young Simon's father beats him mercilessly for his sexual leanings - so much so he gets engaged to a luckless cougar in an extraordinary blouse, but the gentle Count Vallier's mother voyeuristically encourages love between the boys. Nothing is as it seems. 

In conclusion: Given the all male cast, the 'women' in this production are very effective. The most finely drawn narrative is that of the Count and his mother, which is deeply moving. By the end, a difficult play has worked rather well.

References
Courtyard Theatre, tickets