TOM FOOL
By Franz Xaver Kroetz Wed 28 Mar - Sat 21 Apr, 2007TOM FOOL takes us back to the moment when women finally began to change the rules of the game. Otto Meier is a superb portrait of what still passed, in 1970s Germany, for an ordinary working man. Obsessed with the minute hierarchies of his factory workplace, used to taking his wife Martha completely for granted and inclined to see his stroppy 16-year-old son as a rival rather than a child in his care, Otto finds his world shattered when a terminal row with his son drives Martha to pack her bag and leave, leaving him alone to deal with the insecurities and alienations of his working life.
Kroetz charts this story of breakdown with a wonderful, rich yet cold-eyed hyperrealism that is his hallmark.
What the papers say
creatives
Direction - Clare Lizzimore
Design - Paul Burgess
Lighting & Sound Design - Graham Sutherland
cast includes
Liam Brennan
Meg Fraser
Richard Madden
details
'Paul Burgess's design is just right, down to the lava lamp and doilies, and so are the performances of Liam Brennan (Otto), Meg Fraser (Martha) and Richard Madden (Ludwig) in Clare Lizzimore's pitch-perfect production.'
The Guardian