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Continental Divide

  • opened: 3/20/2004
  • closed: 4/4/2004
  • Barbican Centre
  • Box Office: 0845 120 7527
  • Details:
  • Summary: Visit theARCHIVE to hear a discussion. In Continental Divide, David Edgar turns to America in a two play investigation about how revolutionary fervour in the 1960s has developed as a force in politics today. These plays can be watched in any order. In Mothers Against, he puts the spotlight on Sheldon Vine, a Republican candidate running in a governorship election. Although Sheldon himself is libertarian, he becomes increasingly aware that he must conceal his true beliefs if he is to be elected. Daughters of the Revolution looks at the more overtly left wing Michael Bern, a community college dean who discovers that a traitor in his 1960s political collective has supplied information to the FBI. As Bern tracks down the traitor, the journey becomes one of personal and political discovery. Dominic Cavendish of the Daily Telegraph complained that 'Both [plays] are united by the same deathly tendency towards incessant - to the point of soporific - verbosity, which director Tony Taccone proves powerless to mitigate.' In the Observer Neal Ascherson conceded that Continental Divide is an 'overwhelming double-decker drama', but was more positive, asserting that despite flaws: 'This is a drama about America as it was before George W Bush, and - we can pray - might one day be again.' In The Sunday Independent, Kate Bassett was unforgiving, concluding that 'For a more riveting political play about schisms within rival camps and within individuals, vote with your feet and go see Michael Frayn's Democracy.' In the Independent itself, Paul Taylor acknowledged that 'here is an eloquent protest in the shape of two long, densely analytical plays about the grotesque state of US politics', but drew unfavourable comparisons with Tony Kushner, declaring that 'Kushner's plays capture contemporary reality at a depth unreachable by Edgar, whose work here is stuck in the 1970s debate play.' Michael Billington awarded three stars to the cycle in the Guardian, and compared the atmosphere at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre (where they were before the Barbican) to the enthusiastic engagement surrounding the play's opening in Ashland, Oregon. 'Seen in Birmingham en route to the Barbican, the same works inevitably seem more like a day's course in American politics. Yet they retain their epic bravura and, in dealing with spin and spontaneous protest, raise subjects of passionate common concern.' In The Times, Benedict Nightingale was one of the most enthusiastic supporters, exclaiming: 'A splendid skillful, energetic American cast... This is politics vividly, pointedly, frighteningly in action.' Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard was also positive, proclaiming that 'David Edgar's extraordinary six-hour theatre marathon consists of two interlinked plays, Mothers Against and Daughters of the Revolution, in which he composes an impassioned and nostalgic requiem for the passing and betrayal of the American political dreams of the Sixties.'
  • Author: David Edgar
  • Director: Tony Taccone
  • Composer: Todd Barton
  • Lyricist: n/aSet Designer: William Bloodgood
  • Lighting Designer: Alexander V Nichols
  • Costume Designer: Deborah M Dryden
  • Choreographer: n/a
  • Cast Details: Daughters of the Revolution: Terry Layman (Michael Bern; Melissa Smith (Rebecca McKeene). Mothers Against: Bill Geisslinger (Sheldon Vine). Toured from the Birmingham Rep (6-13 March 2004).
  • Reference: More Info