Oliver Cotton’s new play Daytona turned an idea that came to him on Daytona Beach into a strong and thought-provoking play. It explores the essence of the one moment in time when a person’s split second response to a situation changes everything with far reaching consequences.
Elli and Joe Zimmerman (Maureen Lipman and Harry Shearer), an elderly long time married couple live in a small New York apartment. Their lives are humdrum but reasonably happy, brightened by the dual hobbies of ballroom dancing and gentle bickering. Late one night, Joe’s brother Billy (John Bowe) bursts back into their quiet existence after an unexplained absence of some thirty years with news that shatters them both.
The first act is taken over by Billy’s explanation of his story both before and up to the present day which is somewhat drawn out and John Bowe has a big job to do. However he handles this admirably, filling the stage with his shambling bear-like presence. Billy, Joe and Elli have a past at odds with their comfortable lives in the present, they are exiled Jews, whose war was bloody and desperate, the scars of which in Joe and Elli’s case they have managed to bury successfully.
The second act brings back Maureen Lipman as gentle and practical Elli who has a secret of her own……. Underneath her aproned bosom beats a passionate heart and as always Maureen Lipman never fails to disappoint in her sympathetic portrayal of Elli. Harry Shearer as Joe makes the most of his resigned and slightly down trodden personality which in the end reveals the hidden strength and presence of mind that has carried him through his life.
This is a serious play (despite having Maureen Lipman in the cast who I must confess I am always hopeful she is going to make me laugh) and is a poignant reminder of the casualties of futile war and the on-going consequences.
Jacquie Vowles