WE HAPPY FEW

WE HAPPY FEW

Greville Theatre Club at the Barn Theatre, Little Easton

24.10.2014

Imogen Stubbs, a much-loved actress, got a cold critical reception for her début as a playwright, despite a starry cast and a world-class director.

What a pity, since We Happy Few has much to commend it, not least its theme, which is inherently theatrical.

Unfortunately it is long, wordy, uneven and dramatically incoherent.

It tells the fascinating story of the Artemis Players – the real-life Osiris Players thinly disguised – women whose war effort is to tour Shakespeare around Britain in their “nunnery on wheels”, a 1922 Rolls. The period detail [as in Harwood's The Dresser] is evocative: hessian costumes, spirit gum and Glenn Miller. Director Jonathan Scripps and his experienced cast successfully reduce the play to manageable proportions, and produce an amusing, often touching, ensemble piece.

The powerhouse behind Artemis is the formidable Hetty Oak [Pam Hemming], secretly pining for her long-lost “darling boy” and bravely rallying her motley troops. It is she who, movingly, quotes Prospero at the end, and turns out the light as the curtain falls.

Outstanding among her rag-bag company are Carol Parradine's Flora Pelmet, the co-founder of the troupe. Her heart-rending monologue about her brother Toby is wonderfully done, though it sits awkwardly in the action. Rough-and-ready mechanic Charlie [Lynda Shelverton] has a sapphic Sarah Waters moment with Rosalind [Sonia Lindsey-Scripps], who is relentlessly quashed by her awful mother [Jan Ford] – a hard-drinking, chain-smoking faded pro – Coral Browne rather than Joan Crawford springs to mind. Ford also contributes a priceless cameo, trying out for Titus in the entertaining audition sequence. And Amanda Thompson excels as Ivy, the Brummie housemaid who's cajoled onto the Shakespearean stage.

Marcia Baldry-Bryan is Jocelyn, the stage manager, and Judy Lee is a “batty old lady” as well as a Jewish refugee in an unconvincing subplot.

The simple, versatile set is dressed with swags of colourful costume and a frieze of footwear over the lintel.

“The fewer men, the greater share of honour” … There are two chaps in the cast, though: Adam Thompson as the refugee son, and Rodney Foster working hard to good comic effect in three lesser roles.

The first night audience was positive and enthusiastic – proof perhaps that, given a good play doctor, the piece could yet be the hit that Stubbs must have been hoping for.

photograph by Adrian Hoodless

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

Greville Theatre Club at the Barn Theatre Little Easton

30.05.13

Oscar Wilde's "trivial comedy" is very well received by the "serious people" of rural Essex – gales of laughter, and knowing anticipation of more than one classic riposte.

Production values are high. The costumes look substantial and stylish, from Aunt Augusta's brocade to Gwendolen's cerise gown to Algy's garb of woe to the Canon's gaiters. The set is simple – pale Aesthetic green – with added trellis for the Woolton garden, and an impressive quick change to the Morning Room.

Nine actors from the Greville rep bring Oscar's words to life. Urbane, poker-faced Lane [Rodney Foster] and his country cousin Merriman [Steve Bradley]. Miss Prism, delicious in her mortification, is Judy Lee; Chasuble, her metaphorical admirer is richly, ripely drawn by Peter Nicholson.

The quartet of lovers: Jonathan Scripps' smug, smiling Jack, sartorially stunning in his Act One suit, could clearly give some tailoring tips to his wicked friend Moncrieff [Adam Thompson], Wilde-eyed with a hint of the Mad Hatter. And a deft deliverer of his many epigrams.

Sonia Lindsey-Scripps – like a pink rose – as fun-loving Cecily, and Carol Parradine as Gwendolen, her supercilious look, her insincere smile reminiscent of Dame Maggie in her prime; she will clearly become like her mother, superbly depicted by Jan Ford, the glances, the inflections, the timing, the eloquent body language making a satisfyingly rounded character. Her "handbag" more rueful than outraged.

Occasionally lines were lost to laughter, but the pace is lively, the staging inventive. The synchronised shock reaction on "Your brother!", and the girls drawing together for the "wounded, wronged" reconciliation just two examples of effective ensemble.

The Importance was directed and produced for The Greville by Marcia Baldry and Diana Bradley.

KATHERINE HOWARD

Greville Theatre Club at the Barn Little Easton

05.06.10

William Nicholson's gripping take on history is staged on a red floor, against a white backdrop. Leaving us to admire the gorgeous costumes [Judy Lee and the Dressing Up Box] and the great characters.

This slice of the life of Henry VIII begins with processions and pomp – the King's marriage to Anne of Cleves [Lynda Shelverton]. She is naively ignorant of the facts of life, and the well-meant attempts of the ladies of the court to enlighten her were a high point of Act One. Another comic leavening in the tragic tale was the evidence of adultery given by Mrs Halls [Amanda Thompson].

But the drama revolves round the flirtatious young Katherine [Debbie Lee Thomson, suitably shameless, though not as innocent as Nicholson paints her, and not always convincing as a member of one of the first families in the land] her lover Culpeper [Adam Thompson] and her monarch.

Chris Kearney gave a superb Henry. The Laughton eyebrow, the temper and the smell of rotting meat, but also, and more tellingly, the self-pity and the soliloquies [the “God” speech particularly powerful]. His voice was compelling, especially in reflective mood, as he mourned the young prince imprisoned in his vast carcase, and imagined it freed once more at the day of resurrection. Another memorable moment saw the King, his youth restored by his love for his young bride, convince himself that she had betrayed him.

The young lovers, and Lady Rochford [beautifully done by Diana Bradley] are doomed because of the background “battle for the soul of England”. Peter Nicholson's excellent wry, wily Norfolk, and James Rawes' crafty Cranmer manipulate the King and his young bride for their own ends.

Karen Ashton's polished production had a strong cast, and a real sense of the tragedy and absurdity of Henry's history.