SEASON'S GREETINGS

SEASON'S GREETINGS

The Hutton Players

Brentwood Theatre

21.11.13

Mary Redman was in the audience:

Most of Alan Ayckbourn's plays are a gold mine of opportunities for actors and directors and this black comedy view of a "family" Christmas is no exception. All the stresses and strains of people who don't see each other from one year's end to the next, the catering dilemmas, who should be kept well away from alcohol or in this case, guns.
Designer Alan Thorley came up with an impressive set with its floor plan of two living rooms and a hall with a staircase leading off one side and a kitchen on the other, plus massive Christmas tree.
Entertaining as it was this, however, led to one of the problems of this particular production - the physical distance of the audience from dialogue and action (of which there was plenty) in the hall area.
There were plenty of laughs. Especially from William Wells's enraged and outraged Howard's showpiece puppet theatre, Vernon Keeble-Watson's thoroughly nasty piece of work Uncle Harvey and Kathy Smith's outrageously drunken Phyllis. With them you knew the production was in safe hands.
The production was, however, in footballing terms a game of two halves. Some of the cast didn't realise that their distance from us at the back of the set needed more voice projection and energy so that even the front row missed lines. This contrasted with the maturer members of the cast giving it their all in voice and characterisation, and the contrast was obvious.
Gary Ball gave a nicely understated portrait of the writer guest Clive. His delicate tiptoeing scene with Amy Clayton's frustrated spinster was followed by a comic sex scene with her married sister Vikki Pead's Belinda.
Marjorie Dunn was the director.

SEASON'S GREETINGS

SEASON'S GREETINGS

LADS at the Tractor Shed, Latchingdon

17.11.12

A real church choir carolling in the foyer, but that's about as far as peace and goodwill go in Ayckbourn's classic Christmas comedy, revived by LADS in the Tractor Shed.

It's done, if not in the round, then at least on the floor, as the playwright intended, with a nice set including a landing, with bedrooms off, and the dining room and lounge right under the audiences noses. It obviously proved a bugger to light, though; the hall was often in total darkness, for instance – a scene played in the dark should not mean a scene with no lighting whatever.

The festive season often throws families together, causing tension, tempers and drunken tears. Here, we have Neville [Daniel Tunbridge] and his bright young wife Belinda [Jamie-Leigh Royan]. Into their suburban home come childless doctor Bernard [a nicely fussy performance from Robin Warnes] and his dypso wife Phyllis [Eileen Judd]. And ex-colleague Eddie [David Hudson], with Pattie, his heavily pregnant wife [a convincing sense of desperation from Carole Hart]. Here's Bel's spinster sister, with her duffle coat and lisle stockings [Vicky Melhuish] who's picked up an author at her book group – Alan Elkins making an intense, bemused Clive.

And, discovered in front of the TV watching a seasonal action movie, is Uncle Harvey, excellently characterised by Keith Spencer.

There were some very amusing scenes, like the drumming bear in the farcical close to Act One, or the awkward encounter between Belinda and Clive. And, of course, the priceless puppet show, with Bernard increasingly frustrated by his incompetent stage-crew, and a cynical Harvey the chief critic at the dress rehearsal.

But I was left with the feeling that there was more to the play than we were getting – not all of the actors explored the depth of their character – like all of Ayckbourn's work, the farce and the fun are only the surface …

Season's Greetings was directed, as it was in the Village Hall back in '85, by Gavin Rouse. It was good to be down with the action – we could almost have handed Bernard his Third Pig – feeling as cosy as one can in a vast agricultural outbuilding.