ROXY KRASNER

ROXY KRASNER

and the Case of the Pink Belle

The College Players at Brentwood Theatre

05.05.17

Holy potato skins ! It's the fourth in the Roxy Krasner franchise, bringing its unique brand of surreal silliness to Brentwood Theatre.

It's well over three years since their last outing, but all the familiar elements are in place: the trademark half-moon window, with excellent projections, including an introductory montage to set the scene.

The characters, too – Darren Matthews' fast-talking “Smokey” Joe Pirelli, and his faithful Girl Friday Roxy [Lindsay Hollingsworth]. They almost get to tie the knot this time, thwarted at the last moment by Victor the scammer vicar, played by William Wells, who also gets to hone his German accent as the character with the cleverest moniker – Herr Helmut Mullerlicht.

The Salmon Sisters are back, too – inimitably played by June Fitzgerald and Elaine Laight. This time we find them bravely piloting a bomber and gamely posing as strippers. The crude, lewd Limelight Larry [Paul Sparrowham on fearless form] and the equally dim English Gwen [Hannah James] are central to the plot, and cosmopolitan colour is added by Claire Hilder, Romy Brooks and Elliott Porte.

Bob O'Brien is the NYPD's finest, especially hilarious when carried insensible from the stag party …

An A-list cast, with award-winning actors like Gary Ball lucky to get a chance to walk on and shift scenery.

No chance of spoilers here, since the comically convoluted plot defies summary. The Pink Belle of the title is both a plane and a chanteuse, there are model aircraft, dinosaurs, dances both tap and fan, cherrystones – balls to Hamburg – and a humanitarian, vegetarian Sagittarian. But no giraffe, librarian, meteorologist, or cartographer. Close, but no cigar. Actually, there is a cigar, clutched in Larry's sweaty fist.

Hard not to be caught up in the daft twists and turns of this tale of battleships and flying fortresses. A sterner critic might have wished for a firmer hand, perhaps wielding a pair of scissors. Some of the gags were laboured, sometimes the manic pace was allowed to flag.

But an impressive, original comedy, produced and directed for the College Players by Nick Wilkes.

Will there be a fifth wheel on this tireless trilogy ? Roxy seems to think so; close encounters in the Nevada desert are promised in The Case of the Alien Invasion. Watch this space ...

TWO

TWO

The College Players at Brentwood Theatre

01.10.16

Jim Cartwright's 1989 classic passes a typical evening in the Unicorn, a pub somewhere up north. We meet the publican and his wife, and a cross section of regulars and strangers, rendez-vous and couples, coppings off and fallings out. Lubricated by double Dubonnets and pints of Old Mayor.

The College Players bring a strong cast and a superb set to the piece. Anchored by the landlord and his missus, their life devoted to this place, pulling pints, exchanging banter with the punters, nipping out to fetch glassware or replenish supplies. But it's clear from their snippy bickering that there's little love lost between them; it's not till the unexpectedly dark dénouement that we learn why. This emotionally charged final scene, though it seems to belong in a different play, is excellently done by James Wild and Lindsay Hollingsworth – facing off over the bar, finally united in silhouette, lit only by the neon sign behind them.

Fine cameos from those who drift in and out of the bar. Notably from Jacqueline Parry – memorably fantasising about big men before she's joined by her feeble cloth-capped runt of a husband [Nick Wilkes] – I don't think it helps to have him on early, though. And Pat Gunton as a resentful carer and the butcher's secret admirer; a moving performance of one of the best pieces of writing in the show. Elliott Porte, too, a natty widower outwardly quiet and lonely “having a good time within”. Comedy gold from Bob O'Brien and June Fitzgerald, plus-size pensioners who've come in to eat crisps and watch a Western on the telly [that dates the piece, doesn't it?].

There's Moth from Merseyside [Matt Hudson], with his Liverpool shirt and his roving eye, with his bird Maudie [Kirstin Devlin]; a loathsome bully [Mark Griffiths] and his mousy, abused wife [Lauren Bracewell], and, after closing time, a promising début from Millie Waters as the lost little girl who prompts the publicans to confront their past.

Beautifully written, often poetic, Cartwight's classic is given a polished, enjoyable outing by this talented company, directed by Claire Hilder.

But, like Ayckbourn's Intimate Exchanges – also sometimes done with a larger cast – it is, as the title suggests, a two-hander. So a major element of the theatrical experience – the versatility, the lightning changes of mood and costume – is inevitably lacking. And it does seem strange to have the busy bar peopled by invisible drinkers, while the turns drift in by ones and twos.

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY

College Players at Brentwood Theatre

25.09.15

Pinter's dark classic is given a very impressive outing on the intimate boards at Brentwood.

Transformed, for just three nights, into a dingy 1950s dining room. Design-wise, the gold stars [pouffe, hallstand, lloyd loom] heavily outnumber the black marks [Evening Standard, hi-viz, shopping bag].

The serving hatch frames moments. Characters hesitate in doorways. A pocket torch makes masks of terror.

William Wells' production catches to perfection the latent menace, the absurd fantasies, the sexual tension. Wells himself plays Petey the deckchair man, and he is joined by a superb cast. Especially impressive are Lindsay Hollingsworth as dowdy Meg – her early scene with Stanley setting the tone marvellously – and Bob O'Brien as McCann, affable and scary, tearing strips off the Standard, staring at the broken drum.

And Gary Ball, outstanding as troubled, mysterious Stanley, mean and malicious at the outset, a broken, voiceless marionette at the end, before the slow fade on one final treacherous memory. The surreal interrogation, just before the interval in this version, his paranoia personified.

Claire Hilder is Lulu, flirtatious at the party, resentful the morning after, and Matt Jones plays Goldberg, sharp suit and insincere smile, whose briefcase she unwisely opens.

A memorable production of an important play; a huge achievement for this enterprising company.

THE REAL INSPECTOR HOUND

THE REAL INSPECTOR HOUND

The College Players,

Brentwood Theatre

10.05.2014

Mary Redman was the real critic ...

Hound is Tom Stoppard's black comedy that sends theatrical conventions and Agatha Christie-style murder mysteries absolutely sky high. Jokes with words and visual jokes are what he specialises in and completely succeeds in demolishing any scrap of dignity in his subjects. What we see is a play within a play as two theatrical critics take their seats for a run-of-the-mill potboiler they've written about a hundred times.

Following some pre-curtain toing and froing between our heroes Moon and Birdboot energetically and thoroughly played by James Wild and Darren Matthews June Fitzgerald's Mrs Drudge made her entrance on set. Idly dusting the same things over and over again June really came into her own later in the “play”. She's a fearless actor and always mesmerising to watch as when she filled the audience in with the back story.

Richard Spong was a lively cad Simon Gascoyne who also combined ham and bad acting in his pursuit of the money while Claire Hilder's squeaky-voiced ingénue, was the stilted actress as both heroine and tennis-mad jilted girlfriend Felicity. Lindsey Hollingsworth is another actor who can do no wrong. As Lady Cynthia, mistress of all she surveyed, she swept imperiously onstage in a clingy, siren-red 1930s' evening dress.

Harrumphing Major Magnus (Bob Brien) entered into the fun which included the sound effect of his ancient wheelchair bumping down the stairs on the opposite side to where he made his entrance.

As the Inspector Paul Hollingsworth was extremely good value for money. A walking disaster area sartorially he arrived in yellow oilskins with a matching safety helmet crowned with a flashing blue light and massive snows shoes for crossing the Essex swamps. When removed these revealed yet another clothing disaster of mismatched items echoing his mismatched brain cells.

The director Daryl Adcock and his cast did the play proud by entering fully into the mayhem as the critics got involved in a punch up onstage and two of the cast took their places in the “audience”.

Finally many congratulations to the brave Peter Farenden as the corpse who spent the entire production immobile and flat on the floor.

Thank you College Players for a very enjoyable evening.

ROXY KRASNER AND THE CASE OF THE SOVIET SUBMARINE

ROXY KRASNER AND THE CASE OF THE SOVIET SUBMARINE

The College Players at the Brentwood Theatre

28.09.13

Here's Roxy – back for another "totally unbelievable" ripping yarn of international skulduggery.

The superb set has an imposing fanlight [classy back projections behind] which opens to form the submarine. Or in one priceless sequence, three simultaneous subs, crewed by three shades of foreign foe.

Not everything is as brilliant as this, and we are served some very ancient gags indeed, but style and polish make up for a lot, and it is good to welcome back some masters of the genre: Darren Matthews' laid-back dick, Lindsay Hollingsworth as his lovelorn side-kick secretary, keeping fans and first-timers up to date with her stream-of-consciousness soliloquies. June Fitzgerald and Elaine Laight are here again as the Salmon Sisters, while Paul Sparrowham reprises his lecherous Larry, memorably struggling into a lamé fish-tail in a moment of pure, filthy farce. Indeed the shade of Carry On is never far away, with some risqué wordplay from our author, Anon.

Among the denizens of Hollywood: Emma Feeney as a rasping Mabel, Hannah James as English Gwen, James Wild – cod-piece as impressively engineered as the U-boat's conning-tower – as Rodney, Claire Hilder as dancing diva Lola, and Bob O'Brien brilliant as the Leg-Man, tasked with humping mermaids around the sound stage …

Oh yes, there are mermaids, and they do tap-dance. The glorious plot involves Easter Island and Fabergé eggs - it's produced and directed by Sue Welch and Nick Wilkes. Will this tie up the trilogy, or will it become a franchise like the Road pictures or Dick Barton ? Well, there's a hefty clue at the end of the show – let's hope Roxy Pirelli [née Krasner] will bounce back soon in the mystery of the pink bird …

ROXY KRASNER AND THE CASE OF THE MUMMY'S CURSE

ROXY KRASNER AND THE CASE OF THE MUMMY'S CURSE

College Players at Brentwood Theatre

12.05.12

"There's a zombie stealing the Ark of the Covenant!!!" They do still write dialogue like that, I'm glad to say, and the anonymous ["… is he Greek ?"] screenwriter behind this Roxy Krasner sequel has come up with a wickedly entertaining confection. Think Indiana Jones done over as a 39 Steps style spoof, and you'll start to get the B picture. There were also a couple of dance routines and a weird Sapphic subplot, all expertly "produced and directed" by Sue Welch and Nick Wilkes.

Technically, the show was a triumph, with a lovely wide set, brilliant back projections and an impressive pair of female facilities.

A strong cast embraced the OTT style, none more successfully than Paul Sparrowham as the lecherous Limelight Larry – his striptease and cover-up a comic highlight. Roxy herself, talking novel and secretary sidekick, was engagingly done by Lindsey Hollingsworth, with Darren Matthews as her granite-jawed detective. Excellent work too from Emma Feeney as Cleo Cartwright, Mariam Uddin as the undercover reporter Holly Woods and Hannah James as Goldie, Queen of the Nile. Best support – Stephen Bracken-Keogh's dyspeptic telegram man, and, well worth waiting for, a double cameo from June Fitzgerald and Elaine Laight as the Salmon Sisters.

We're promised a third episode, and indeed were treated to a slick trailer before the credits rolled.

BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE MUSEUM

College Players at Brentwood Theatre

18.09.09

Kate Atkinson's first novel transfers remarkably well to the stage: the story of Ruby Lennox and her dysfunctional extended family makes an absorbing drama in Bryony Lavery's adaptation, which was impressively staged at Brentwood by the College Players.

Ruby – too clever for her own good – is guided by her therapist as she revisits her colourful past. Emma Feeney gave a beautifully observed performance in the role – funny, and deeply moving in places, she held the narrative together as it leaped the generations and travelled from Whitby [paradise with Auntie Doreen] to Scotland [hell with the Ropers] via the Trenches and the lost property cupboard of the afterlife.

There were many more fine performances in a very large cast – Dawn Cooke's blowsy Bunty, and Lindsay Hollingsworth's Grandma Nell, ageing 50 years in an instant.

Lauren Bracewell's wondrous production had many memorable, moving moments. The ghosts of York crowding the stage, with the tiny lost sister weaving through them, the layers of memory in the shoeless shoe box, the expressionist fire and the climax on the ice. Music and lighting were effectively used to enhance the drama, set against a palimpsest of peeling wallpaper and family photographs.

programme design: James Feeney