Writer: Mark Farrelly
Director: Sarah-Louise Young
31 January 2022 would have been Derek Jarman’s 80th birthday. However, the creative polymath died 28 years ago from complications related to AIDS. In recognition of Jarman’s life and legacy, Mark Farrelly has created this one-man-show.
Designer, filmmaker, painter, writer, activist, and gardener, Jarman’s life and career is as fantastical as it is tragic. Born into a family that was both harsh and loveless, his father threw him out at 21. He hopped around London from one squat to another while studying Art. And, in the first of many surprises, Jarman got his first job designing sets for John Gielgud’s Don Giovanni.
Through gall and luck, he moved from designing to directing, writing and painting. His work, as with his private life, was colourful, passionate, and consuming. He consumed his private life with parties, booze, drugs and sex. Until he received his HIV diagnosis. From then on, he found love and focussed more on work, until it became impossible to do so. He lived exuberantly and died, unfortunately, tortuously.
With so much to cram into a story, it’s always going to be hard to do justice to Jarman’s life. Farrelly’s telling is less a biographical insight and more a greatest hits compilation. With a large part of the show dedicated to his illness, there’s scant time to give much attention to anything else. He covers the dysfunctional paternal relationship with in a few brief minutes. His working with John Gielgud, a few more minutes. His drug and booze filled parties, another few minutes. And so on.
The result is eye-opening but unsatisfying. In a short 85 minutes, we’re given a teasingly brief glimpse into his world. However, we never get the feeling that we know or understand him at all. Farrelly’s portrayal is deeply engaging and subtly physical. He moves around the stage as if he’s had a few too many cups of coffee, but it’s the nuances in his performance that give the piece both its drama and its heart. Sarah-Louise Young’s direction is understated but powerful. The show has four prop:a chair, a sheet, a torch and a scroll of paper. From this Young and Farrelly manifest Jarman’s complete world in the most remarkably touching and tactile way.
Jarman is, all told, a powerfully performed, but overly brief glimpse into the life of one of Britain’s most provocative artists. Unfortunately, the brevity leaves the overall experience frustratingly unfulfilling.
Reviewed on 31 January and continues to tour
