PRIVATE LIVES

PRIVATE LIVES

London Classic Theatre 

at the Civic Theatre, Chelmsford

26.10.2017

for The Reviews Hub

Coward’s frothy comedy of manners was concocted – as a vehicle for the Master and Miss Gertie Lawrence – at break-neck speed. And that’s how it’s delivered by London Classic Theatre, in Chelmsford for the 12^th date of its national tour.

All over in and hour and three-quarters, including the interval. Realistic characters performing in classic Coward style – speeches to the front, consonants sharp and precise. The pace is often a plus. The four actors have achieved a chemistry that enables subtle interchanges while rattling through the speeches like well-oiled machine guns. But there is a price to pay. Difficult decisions have to be made about which lines will be allowed a laugh, and some of the worldly wit, a few of the bons mots, must fall by the wayside.

The piece is nothing without style, and Michael Cabot’s production has plenty of that. The set – by Frankie Bradshaw, who also designed the costumes – is masterly. The Deauville balconies have twin french windows, with louvred shutters, and twin bistro tables, separated by a row of standard roses. During the interval, the stage is transformed into the flat in Paris, elegantly furnished and dressed with nods to Erté and Tiffany. There are some lovely frocks, too, though even the most sheltered upbringing will have encountered a more ”ravishing” dressing gown than that sported by Elyot here.

Four splendid performers capture the mannered style very convincingly. The first honeymooning couple we meet is Jack Harwick’s Elyot, relaxed in spats, and Olivia Beardsley’s Sibyl – kittenish and breathlessly gushing as she takes in the harbour view. The most tremendous coincidence has the next suite occupied by his ex, Helen Keeley’s langorous, vampish Amanda with her new partner, Victor [Kieran Buckeridge, whose physicality, and physiognomy, seem perfect for the period]. His “rugged grandeur” is somewhat ruffled by first-night nerves, but complications come thick and fast when Amanda spots Elyot over the rose-bushes – her reaction perfectly judged.

Coward’s own “cheap music” doesn’t get a look-in here – the hotel orchestra is both larger and more remote than usual. But the “travelling the world” speech is beautifully delivered, with its unspoken undertones of love rekindled. And when the other halves emerge in their turn, and spot the Duke of Westminster’s yacht, the difference in their reaction neatly encapsulated the difference between the two couples.

In the Paris apartment, Elyot and Amanda squeeze onto the chaise longue; their tempestuous relationship is punctuated by music from the mahogany Victrola and a tiny music box – no baby grand here – and by the time-out imposed by the Sollocks truce. These moments of respite are cleverly devised as cadenzas, allowing the actors and the director to bring in subtleties not explicit in the text.

The two doors recall the symmetry of the Deauville balconies; the violent row at the end of the piece – like Elyot and Amanda, Sybil and Victor find their fights a heartbeat away from passion – echoes the confrontation at the end of Act Two.

The breakfast scene – the quartet crowding behind a small table, Elyot and Amanda happily munching brioche as their partners argue – is exquisitely done, a perfect end to this bracing sprint through Private Lives, in a stylised, and stylish, interpretation. Another fine production of a great play from this enterprising touring company.

production photograph: Sheila Burnett

HYSTERIA

HYSTERIA

London Classic Theatre at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester
20.05.2017

Missed this at the start of its run back in February – now just managed to catch it on the last day of this national tour up the road in Colchester.
The imposing set is a warmly wooden study just off the Finchley Road. The action begins shortly before the Second World War. Sigmund Freud, refugee from Austria, is asleep in an armchair. He is close to death. Kindly Doctor Yahuda [Moray Treadwell] will ease his passing, warning of possible hallucinatory side-effects. Freud seems to regret some of his earlier pronouncements on hysteria, and an evening spent watching Rookery Nook. Salvador Dali – and this much is true – visits, and notes the doctor's bicycle, with hot-water-bottle and snail attached.
From these strange elements, Terry Johnson makes a crazy farce and a serious play about the perils of psychoanalysis; in Michael Cabot's impressive production, surrealism and feminism battle it out as scanties are shed and trousers dropped. It's a brilliant combination, demanding much of its audience and of its actors.
At the Mercury matinée, I felt the actors did better than the audience, though the farce and the quips were well received. John Dorney's Dali was superb – physically expressive, throwing his head back to make his resemblance to the artist even more striking. Ged McKenna made a thoughtful Freud, with a gentle Austrian accent. Language something of a problem, perhaps. Yahuda, a fellow Jew [berating Sigmund for doubting Moses' ethnic credentials] was historically widely travelled, but here has no accent. Nor has the mysterious Jessica, who comes in from Freud's rainy garden, claiming to be his “anima”. Dali, who actually had no German, or English, speaks with a Spanish accent straight from the cod caricature Manuel manual.
Summer Strallen, as Jessica, moved skilfully between her various roles – the discussion of Seduction Theory in Act Two was especially well handled.
The ending – a last gasp for surrealism – featured all sorts of strange events; the lobster telephone made a brief appearance, before Freud settled back to sleep in his armchair again, and there was another urgent tap on the french windows.
The piece is textually very rich, the ideas both timeless and – child abuse, recovered “memories” - startlingly contemporary. All credit to London Classic Theatre for taking this modern classic out on the road, from Yeovil to Aberdare, from Malvern to the Mercury.

THE COLLECTOR

THE COLLECTOR

Kathryn Barker Productions / London Classic Theatre

Cramphorn Theatre Chelmsford

20.10.16

Henry Naylor's three-hander looks back to Iraq in 2003. Much has been written since about the abuse of prisoners, the plight of the Iraqi interpreters.

Here, three monologues are interwoven, the actors move around the three simple stools, naked light-bulbs above them recalling the interrogation rooms where much of the imagined action takes place.

The verse prologue takes us to the land of Sinbad and Saddam, an Arabian nightmare; the epilogue deplores man's greatest enemy, his own brutality.

The three actors give intense, horrifyingly believable performances.

Anna Riding is Zoya, a young Iraqi woman whose fiancé, Nasir, whom we never see, is pivotal to the story. They meet through music, “proper music”, Eminem, Ludacris, Dr Dre. He's something of a subversive, but leaps at the chance of translating for the Americans in their prison.

It's run by Kasprowicz, played by William Reay, a veteran of the first incarnation of the piece on the Edinburgh fringe. Foster,”a woman in the war zone”, is an interrogator who believes that a psychological approach - “pride and ego down” - will get the best “intel”. She's played, with a searing honesty, by Olivia Beardsley, making her UK début in this production.

These three actors, story-tellers really, bring the other characters to life too: Valle the sadistic loudmouth grunt, Faisal the war-lord and many more. And their words paint a terrible picture of darkness overcoming enlightenment, of treachery and humiliation. Kasprowicz, brought down by the sexual chemistry between him and Foster, must watch powerlessly as Saddam's notorious gaol sinks back into inhumanity at the hands of the occupying US Army. And his own liberal patriotism is shaken by the traitor he once trusted.

A powerful piece, part history, part tragedy, given a strong production in this LCT tour, directed by Michael Cabot.

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY
London Classic Theatre at the Civic Theatre, Chelmsford
08.03.2016
for The Reviews Hub

This was Pinter's second full-length play. Not a success in its day; still unsettling and confusing more than half a century on.
But it has become a classic, worthy of inclusion in London Classic Theatre's pantheon.
Michael Cabot's new production is a taut, intelligent reading of the text, respectful of the dark mood behind even the most trivial interchange. Set on a raised platform, reminiscent of a boxing ring, not perhaps seen to best advantage behind the Civic's proscenium. It's a minimalist, realistic set by Bek Palmer, with a suggestion of skeletons beneath the floorboards. A standard lamp, a hatstand, a dark oak dresser.
Sensitively timed dialogue brings out the complex, twisted relationships between these enigmatic characters. Beginning with a pause. Domestic breakfast, mind games with the sinister strangers.
A fine cast, led by Cheryl Kennedy's frustrated, fussy, flaky Meg, hinting at a more glamorous past behind the slovenly landlady in fluffy slippers and head-scarf. The belle of the ball, she recalls at the end.
The other woman who ventures within these drab walls is the cipher Lulu (Imogen Wilde), an unexplained visitor who seems to be a victim of Stanley's advances at the ghastly party of the title, and Goldberg's attentions later that night.
Gareth Bennett-Ryan is the weak, spoiled loner Stanley, cosseted by Meg (the little boy she'd much rather have, perhaps), deliberately destroyed by the manipulative Goldberg and McCann in one of the strongest scenes – Pinter's use of language as a weapon never bettered. Broken by the two intruders whose coming upsets him from the start, he ends up a catatonic wreck, his hands jerking and twitching as if he still had his toy drum, Meg's musical gift for his birthday.
Jonathan Ashley is all smooth menace as the laid-back Goldberg, with Declan Rodgers as the solid, silent McCann – muscular torso, red braces. Both strikingly still in contrast to their victim's nervous movement. Like Ben and Gus in The Dumb Waiter, they are a double act sent to do a job.
Absent from the party is Meg's old man, the lumpen deck-chair attendant Petey, seemingly uninterested in anything beyond the morning paper and his night out with the lads from the chess club. He's played with genial indifference by Ged McKenna.
The piece is an unsettling blend of sitcom and the theatres of the absurd and of cruelty. 
A more intimate space might draw us in more successfully to the banal, claustrophobic world of the seaside boarding house – if that's where we are. But this stylish production deftly lays bare the frightening forces behind the stucco façade – a welcome reminder of one of 20th century's most accomplished British works for the stage.

WAITING FOR GODOT

WAITING FOR GODOT

London Classic Theatre at the Civic Theatre Chelmsford

19.11.15

These days it's not easy taking real theatre on tour. So hats off to LCT for going with Godot, on a pilgrimage from Severn to Solent by way of Kendal and Kilkenny. Lovely to see this enigmatic classic on the Civic stage, and with a good audience, too. Can't compare with stand-up or tribute acts, of course, but even so …

It's a fine production, with plenty for the expert and for the Beckett beginner.

Bek Palmer's set is somewhat perverse, but powerfully so, with the barren landscape replaced by a hall of tarnished mirrors, tree chandeliers suspended with their roots in air and driftwood stepping-stones, representing the road and the isolation of the travellers going nowhere as they wait for Godot to come.

A nicely complementary double act from Peter Cadden as the refined Didi and Richard Heap as the lugubrious ex-poet Gogo. Excellent cross talk routines, and a real rapport between these two unlikely friends.

Jonathan Ashley is the showman Pozzo, and his Lucky is the excellent Michael Keane, one of the best I've seen – credibly eleven years old, but achingly world-weary, a melancholy mime; his thinking monoogue beautifully judged.

The boy, a mirror image in each act, is Sonja Zobel, skipping across the stones in a moment of levity before the light dims.

Waiting for Godot is directed for London Classic Theatre by Michael Cabot.

Production photograph: Sheila Burnett

ABSENT FRIENDS

ABSENT FRIENDS

London Classic Theatre at the Civic Theatre Chelmsford

20.05.2015

Old friends, shared memories. They meet up, in this classic comedy, to support Colin, who moved out of the locality, met Carol, popped the question, but then lost her to a freak drowning accident.

They're gathered in Di's lounge, the epitome of 70s style. It becomes clear that there are tensions amongst the old crowd, and cheery, upbeat Colin, when he arrives, is clearly the happiest of them all despite his loss.

Michael Cabot's polished touring revival brings out the weaknesses in all six characters. Ashley Cook is the annoyingly positive Colin; Kevin Drury the sour, unfaithful husband of Diana, whose valiant efforts to put on a brave face for Colin's sake are at the heart of the drama. She's played with wonderful depth and humanity by Catherine Harvey – the polar opposite of Kathryn Ritchie's rudely laconic Evelyn. She's married to John [John Dorney], insecure, restless, squirming at any mention of death.Warm-hearted, foot-in-mouth Marge is amusingly done by Alice Selwyn, with excellent comic timing.

The excruciating awkwardness of it all, the wrecked relationships and the domestic disquiet, make for two hours of delightfully uncomfortable entertainment.

THINGS TO COME - ENTERTAINING MR SLOANE

ENTERTAINING MR SLOANE 

at the Civic Theatre Chelmsford

Had he not been bludgeoned to death by his lover, Joe Orton would now be in his 80s - a grand old man of the stage, even, like Alan Bennett or Alan Ayckbourn. 

His early success, Entertaining Mr Sloane, is a unique blend of farce and black comedy that beautifully captures the suppressed desires of the 1960s. Kath and her elderly father’s drab existence is interrupted by the arrival of a new lodger, the enigmatic Mr Sloane. Provocative and sexually ambiguous, Sloane soon has both Kath and her brother Ed competing for his favours. But all is not as it seems. Behind Sloane’s nonchalant demeanour lies a heart of violence with a dark and secretive past.

Entertaining Mr Sloane was first staged at the Arts Theatre, London in 1964, winning the London Critics ‘Variety’ award for Best Play of the Year. This revival of London Classic Theatre’s 2003 production of the play celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Orton’s classic black comedy.

To book tickets for this amazing show visit chelmsford.gov.uk/theatres or call the Box Office on 01245 606505.Tickets are £16.50 & £15.00, concessions £15.00 & £14.50 and Leisure Plus cardholders can enjoy £1 off full price and standard concessionary tickets.

BETRAYAL

BETRAYAL
London Classic Theatre at the Civic Theatre, Chelmsford
09.10.13

Laura Bennett was at the Civic for the Chelmsford Weekly News:

Following a history of successes, London Classic Theatre return to Chelmsford again this season with their taut production of Harold Pinter's Betrayal. Directed by Michael Cabot, the slick, elegant performances are played out among Bek Palmer's stylised set. Fragments of once inhabited locations that the characters, ghost-like, slip through and around, their lives reflected in the decrepit, broken down remnants of the walls.

Pinter's use of reverse chronology slowly reveals details of Emma's affair with Jerry, her husband Robert's best friend, with the audience first witnessing the pair two years after the break up of their liaison. The timeframe allows the audience to have a constant sense of the future, and through the revelation of the past to piece together events and revel in the details.

Rebecca Pownall achieves a wonderful depth of character as Emma, portraying the uptight worries of the woman we see at the play's opening, gradually shedding years and cares as we witness a youthful, energetic Emma in the honeymoon period of her illicit relationship. The scene in Venice is particularly revealing, with Emma's stony faced reaction to Robert's knowledge of her affair - affectingly performed by Pete Collis - disclosing the emotional disconnection from her husband. This is not a detachment shared by partner Jerry, whose regular references to his wife and family prove that despite his betrayal he is loyal to them at his heart. A softer, needier character than Emma, he is given an intelligent portrayal by Steven Clarke.

Produced to the high quality for which London Classic Theatre are now known, this is a fast paced, revealing and thought-provoking production of an entertaining Pinter, which retains an exciting dramatic tension throughout.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
London Classic Theatre Company
Civic Theatre, Chelmsford
Friday 22nd March 2013

Laura Bennett was in the Civic stalls:

Wilde's time-honoured comedy is brought energetically to life by the consummate London Classic Theatre Company, visiting Chelmsford mid-way through their UK Tour.

Eminently quotable, this production proves that the piece is as vibrant now as ever - more than 100 years since its original release. A solid cast bring a fresh vitality to the familiar characters, with Wilde's witty dialogue delivered with impressive comic timing. The two Ernests (Harry Livingstone as Algernon and Paul Sandys as Jack) bounce off one another with ease, and their intended sweethearts (Helen Keeley as Gwendolen and Felicity Houlbrooke as Cecily) are graceful in their indignation and work especially well together. Carmen Rodriguez is majestic as Lady Bracknell, hilariously under-playing the famous "handbag" scene in a picture of contained distaste. Richard Stamp is almost scene-stealingly funny as the pair of butlers, distinguishing entirely between the two characters and not needing dialogue to generate plenty of farcical humour.

The design of this stylish production is key with the only furniture a carefully fashioned chair per character, encircling the acting space and being strategically pushed forward when required. Costumes are lavishly colourful, and the large roses hanging as the only backdrop add a simple elegance throughout. A charming production of a timeless theatrical classic.

EQUUS

EQUUS

London Classic Theatre at the Civic Theatre

10.11.11

Almost forty years since this powerful play was premi鑽ed, and to the students who packed the Civic, taking notes and making design sketches, Shaffer must seem as remote, and as wordy, as Shaw.

LCT's touring revival of this 70s classic was superbly staged, with the beaten bronze of the horse heads glowing in the gloom of the stables. The amphitheatre, and the ever-present actors, echoed Ancient Greece, a theme running through the musings of troubled shrink Martin Dysart, played with gravitas and total sincerity by an excellent Malcolm James. His patient was Matthew Pattimore, who captured the desperate bewilderment of the teenager whose life is blighted by religion and his passionate worship of the horse. A fine performance, too, from Anna Kirke as his neurotic, helpless mother.

The climax of Act One, in which Alan rides his favourite horse at dead of night, was effectively staged Aidan Downing played Nugget. I liked the straw emblem hanging ominously over the arena, and the muted suggestion of the crucial act of blinding.

Michael Cabot's carefully crafted production makes a worthy revival of this important piece; though it's very much of its time, it can still speak to us today of the delicate balance between the normal and the sublime. The ambitious tour reaches Lowestoft, via Lincoln, at the end of the month.