STAR QUALITY

STAR QUALITY

Ian Fricker at the Mercury Theatre Colchester

13.02.2012

for The Public Reviews

The playwright present at rehearsal ? Never an easy decision, as Bennett shows us in The Habit of Art.

In this, Coward's farewell to the stage, we have young Bryan Snow [a distant, more commercial cousin of Roland Maule in Present Laughter] constantly involved in casting disputes and endless re-writes. Very nicely done by Bob Saul, who delivered the saccharine closing speech with commendable sincerity.

Star Quality attempts to analyse the state of British theatre; Christopher Luscombe put it together some years ago from Coward's unperformed script and an earlier short story with the same title.

It's set in the 50s, though the feel is more late 60s, when the drawing room was giving way to the kitchen sink, and the glamour of the West End was threatened by Directors' Theatre at the Royal Court and the Old Vic.

Whichever, it might as well be Garrick's Drury Lane, so far is it removed from thespian life today. Almost all the men wear ties to rehearsal, and everyone smokes all the time. Adrian Linford's clever design captures the period well, with an especially awful stage set for the play, Dark Heritage. And one of the strengths of Joe Harmston's direction was the way the rehearsal stage was seamlessly used for all the settings – the cosy trattoria, the flowery bower of the star dressing room, the cottage in Kent. The sound plot was effective too [Matthew Bugg], in the time lapses, for instance, as the read-through and the rewrites are elided. The script is full of names, dropped or flagged up, and in-jokes, and some amusing period pastiche.

Not a particularly original bunch, these characters. The seen-it-all dresser [Gay Soper, underused here], the solid actor with amnesia ["I knew it backwards in the bath this morning..." Keith Myers], the "competent" superannuated soubrette, sacked after Manchester, [Sarah Berger] and the ruthless big-headed director, presumably written with the Master himself in mind [Daniel Casey]. Most interesting, I thought, was his Graeme Payn, the waspish personal assistant played with subtlety and style by Anthony Houghton, his suede shoes a sure sign of deviant decadence.

Not forgetting, of course, the ageing leading lady, flattered into accepting the role, insecure despite the accolades and the applause. Gertie Lawrence, one assumes, so a big ask, and only fitfully embodied [in her "in the dark, alone" big speech, notably] by Liza Goddard, elegant even in her most difficult moments.

The show begins and ends with that most evocative of settings, a dark, empty stage. And after the curtain calls, the reconciliation, the eulogy to star quality itself, Goddard's Miss Barrie is left to switch off the working light.

video with the cast from the start of the tour ...

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews

THE MONKEY'S PAW and THE HORRIBLE THING IN THE GARDEN

THE MONKEY'S PAW

and 

THE HORRIBLE THING IN THE GARDEN

The Phoenix Theatre Company

Christchurch Hall, Chelmsford

10.02.12

Mary Redman was in the audience ...

Can it really be six years since I saw a Phoenix production? The attrition rate has been high with many of their former prize fighting thespians having transferred their loyalties elsewhere in the amateur world; although a joint Dream is promised for the summer.

Under their former name of Moulsham Lodge Amateur Dramatic Society they built up a reputation for the weird and wonderful with some stirring Grand-Guignol productions, so they should have been at home with WW Jacobs's tale of horror and a “macabre comedy” by Mary Neild.

The enormously wide stage and even bigger hall at Christchurch doesn't make life easy when your play is set in the living room of an old cottage on the outskirts of Fulham in the early 1900s. From the projection point of view it leaves your characters talking into a void rather than intimately to each other and occasionally your audience left out. This got better when they all huddled round the fire to hear the increasingly drunken tale of Geoff Hadley's excellent Sergeant-Major Morris. The incredulous White Family gradually realised that the paw might work to their advantage, despite its habit of wreaking vengeance on those who dared to make a wish with it.

Syd Smith's father was cautious but Richard Langley's Herbert, a youth much endowed with a magnificent head of hair contrary to the customs of the times, had no such qualms. The result of egging his father on was a fortune laced with tragedy, thus breaking his mother Julie Lissamore's heart. Les Leeds made an appropriately spectral bearer of doom-laden news

The performance as a whole felt a bit quiet. Then I realised it was the second night of the run which is when unwary actors give in to a sense of thank goodness the first night is over and give rather subdued performances when they really need to give it some welly. To conquer that immense stage, a false exterior to the cottage would have brought the sides in and the cast forward, thus increasing the intimacy between cast and audience. Oh, and in the days of coal fires and poverty we didn't leave interior doors open in our houses – “Were you born in a barn?” being the usual sarcastic comment.

All was sweetness and light and Come Into The Garden Maud at the start of The Horrible Thing when the cast gave us a much more out front production. This very short play gave its cast plenty of opportunity to have fun with their genteel characters Miss Violet Throstle (Helen Langley); and Miss Rose Throstle (Angela Gee's vision of blonde loveliness with red roses running riot all over her dress plus decorated wellies); the horror story-addicted char Mrs Honeybun (Joan Lanario) and sensible travelling hairdresser Marlena Honeybun (Leila Francis) respectively.

Of course it all turned out to be a scarecrow causing a storm in a bone china tea cup but it was an amusing treat for the audience.

Tricia Childs directed both plays. Now there's a Titania for you – the dramatic, beautiful looks combined with dramatic experience.

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST

Early Doors

at Brentwood Theatre

01.02.12

The set is stylish and bold – white furniture, chequered floor, opaque plastic screens, nurses' station dominating from centre stage – and this Psychiatric Institution is peopled with the angry, the inadequate and the introverted.

The cast of assorted "loonies" was the great strength of Amy Clayton's production for Early Doors. Their characterization was impressively sustained, meticulously observed. Restless, short-fused Cheswick [Paul Sparrowham], halting, immature Billy [Gary Ball] fussy, delusional Martini [Martin Harris], tense, destructive Scanlon [Andy Gilett] all excellently done, as was William Wells' blustering Brit, who is deposed by the newcomer, but finally gets to wear his rebellious hat.

Justin Cartledge was the legendary McMurphy; not as charismatic or as boisterous as some, but an affable, reasonable guy, feigning psychosis for his own ends, a telling contrast with the tics and traumas of the institutionalised inmates. His dialogue with Ray Johnson's touchingly portrayed Chief, and their final moments together, were high points of the evening, quieter counterpoints to the big set-pieces like the football match and the party.

The Big Nurse, appalled by all McMurphy stands for, was Julie Salter, efficient, chilly and implacable. Of the other staff, I was struck in particular by Vernon Keeble Watson's vicious Aide.

A confident, polished ensemble piece, enhanced by video inserts for the ECT sequence, and by carefully chosen tracks from The Four Tops, Bowie, The Stones ...

THE GLASS MENAGERIE

THE GLASS MENAGERIE

Writtle Cards

at Writtle Village Hall

03.02.12

For their hundredth production, Writtle chose Tennessee Williams' moody memory play, first staged in 1944.

A tough call, recreating the steamy world of St Louis just a stone's throw from Writtle's frozen duckpond, but Writtle Cards' production [directed by Laura Bennett and produced by Nick Caton] worked hard to establish atmosphere, with Tom's opening monologue, evocatively delivered by Caton, with the black stage [which really needed a more ambitious lighting plot] and with the soundtrack: the worn-out phonograph records on Laura's Victrola, The Swan and other animals, and cheap music from the Paradise Dance Hall across the street.

Two other devices added much to our appreciation of the piece: the "magic mirror" on the wall [though it should really have been bigger] and the key words ['legends'], revealed Brecht-style on costumes and furnishings. Not everything worked, but the production was full of real originality and inspiration.

Paulette Harris was a very convincing Amanda, the faded Southern Belle who is over-fond of her shy, disabled daughter [Megan Hill, in a touchingly simple performance]. Harris caught the martyred expression, the resignation, the tristesse, to perfection. She had the accent nailed too. Only occasional insecurity with the words prevented this from being a truly outstanding interpretation.

Ben Fraser's "scrubbed and polished" Gentleman Caller was a nice foil for Caton's tragic Tom, trapped in the stifling apartment and the dead-end warehouse, until he finally walks out, with "and so goodbye" on his valise.

A FEW GOOD MEN

A FEW GOOD MEN

Theatre at Baddow

at the Parish Hall

27.01.12

Legend has it that Sorkin's tightly plotted play was sketched on serviettes while he was behind the bar in Broadway's Palace Theatre. La Cage Aux Folles, since you ask.

A story of smart-witted lawyers and single-minded Marines, A Few Good Men poses many challenges, not least the inevitable comparison with the 1992 movie.

Patrick Willis got some cracking performances from his TAB cast. Dawson and Downey [Bruce Thomson and Matt Nobbs] are two teenagers charged with murdering a fellow Marine. Tyro naval lawyer [junior grade] Daniel Kaffee, with his "fast-food, slick-ass" manner, is to handle the defence. Ben Salmon's performance was spot on. Gum-chewing, cynical, timing his quick-fire repartee to perfection, he was well matched by Kelly McGibney's Galloway, eager to make an impression and find a loophole, upbeat and perky until a courtroom faux pas shatters her fragile confidence. And by John Mabey's Weinberg, one of the few likeable characters, with a nice feel for the desperate humour.

Their opponents across Jim Crozier's courtroom were Paul Winter's McKendrick, a shouty, Christian Lieutenant, and Jesse Powis's arrogant Jessup, a very strong performance, short on light and shade perhaps, but frighteningly believable. His climactic defeat at Kaffee's hands was one of the best moments I've seen on the amateur stage for some time. No weaknesses in this large cast, but space only to mention Beth Crozier's doctor, brow-beaten by Jessup, and Roger Saddington as smiling Jack Ross, the voice of reason.

Not an easy play to stage, switching between courtroom and offices, role-play and reality; sometimes the pace and realism came at the expense of clarity, and some of the uniforms would have merited a Code Red, but nonetheless a remarkable achievement for this ambitious group.