Drama

"Otherwise Engaged"

by Simon Gray Downstage

"No man is an Island" wrote John Donne, Yet Simon Hench, an extremely successful publisher it perhaps the nearest imaginable example of utterly detached isolation from his fellow human beings. For such on individual, who is indifferent to the point of cruelty, a surprising amount of suffering humanity comes asking for help one Saturday afternoon, just as he is starting to play his brand new recording of "Parsifal".

As hit longed for peace it shattered, we may initially sympathise with his annoyance at the intrusion of his scruffy and ill mannered upstairs tenant, a rather drunk and very offensive literary critic and girlfriend, who is very quickly making an extremely unsubtle attempt to use sex to gain a book contract. However, there are others who should have more powerful claims on Simon and yet they don't. These are his brother who is realizing his failure in life, an unattractive aquaintance from school days for whom Simon has inadvertently destroyed the only thing that made his life bearable, and finally Simon's own wife who has been forced by Simon's frigidity to clutch at any crumbs of affection wherever she can find them.

Simon keeps everyone at a distance from him by perverting the function of language, using his wit not to communicate but to erect barriers and we, too, are implicated in his guilt as we endorse his clever twisting of language with our laughter. In fact, the gentle satire directed at Simon could equally well be intended for many of us in the audience, as a warning against the dangers of literacy taken to extremes and used as a weapon against others.

We may wonder why Simon has become so detached, why his intellectual being has taken him over and destroyed any vestige of humanity or even simple understanding. Is he desperately afraid of his own vulnerability if he should become involved or is it just intellectual snobbery? At the end he is only momentarily shaken by two devastating revelations. Although it could be the beginning of the end of his total isolation, it is perhaps more likely that he will somehow find a way to patch up the cracks.

Ray Henwood is excellent in his portrayal of a completely impenetrable Simon (following such giants as Alan Bates and Tom Courtenay in overseas productions). Lewis Rowe as Bernard Wood, Simon's old school enemy, is impressive in his pathetic unprepossessiveness. Alice Fraser as Beth gives an effective impression of the tragic hopelessness of the plight of Simon's wife. In fact there is no weak link in the whole cast. The set and direction are equally flawless and full justice is done to Simon Gray's brilliant play.

Liz Martin.