THE ARBOR directed by Clio Barnard, with Christine Bottomley, Manjinder Virk, George Costigan and Jimi Mistry. A KinoSmith release. 94 minutes. Opens Friday (March 11). See listing. Rating: NNNN
Clio Barnard’s documentary looks at the artistic and emotional legacy of Yorkshire playwright Andrea Dunbar, who stunned the London theatre world with her confrontational works The Arbor and Rita, Sue And Bob Too, and died of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 29, leaving three children behind.
Barnard’s movie – also called The Arbor, after the Bradford housing estate in which Dunbar was raised – explores the relationship between the playwright and her environment, and the impact of her death on her children. Her daughter Lorraine bore the brunt of the loss by her teens, she was a heroin addict and a prostitute, caught in a second wave of misery that arguably has a worse outcome than her mother’s story.
Barnard presents the material as verbatim theatre: actors lip-synch to audio interviews with Dunbar’s family and friends. It’s a brilliant formal decision that shatters our preconceptions about documentary devices like talking heads and re-enactments and forces us to engage more directly with the subjects.
A powerful tale not easily shaken off.
