Middle
Ground at
the
Mercury Theatre Colchester
17.01.2012
It's
thirty years or more since we first saw the Thayer's New England
lodge by the lake.
Ernest
Thompson's play [predating the famous Fonda film] has aged well,
adding a patina of period charm to its gentle, sentimental
exploration of a marriage in its twilight years.
Norman
and
Ethel
[she's
"old",
he's
"ancient"]
take
the
dust
wraps
off
the
furniture
for
the
48th
time,
with
the
whole
summer
ahead
of
them,
remembering
the
neighbours,
listening
to
the
loons,
with
only
death
or
dementia
to
look
forward
to.
That
is
until
their
daughter
Chelsea
finds
her
dentist,
with
his
teenage
son
in
tow
…
This
brand new production, directed and designed by Michael Lunney for
Middle Ground, catches the style and the mood very well, helped by
some lovely haunting music for piano, oboe and violin [specially
written by Lynette Webster and Tessa Frith] and by the Maine summer
home itself, open plan, wooden, with a nice lived-in look to it. Not
so sure about the backcloth with those cliché scudding clouds – a
more impressionistic view of the lake might have been more effective.
The
two household names playing Darby and Joan here both give touchingly
believable performances. Richard Johnson plays the chronically
cantankerous, slightly confused, tough old buzzard Norman to
perfection, with Stephanie Powers as his long-suffering Ethel.
Placid, loving, with the inner strength she needs to cope. Their
final scene, where they confront mortality and close up the house for
another winter, is memorably moving.
And
there is strong support from a terrific cast. Elizabeth Carling is
the grown-up daughter, haunted by a miserable childhood. Her new man
[Tom Roberts] has a wonderful scene with Johnson, the older man
determined to wrong-foot his guest. And there's a lovely character
cameo from Kasper Michaels as the mailman with the ludicrous laugh,
Chelsea's childhood sweetheart. The young boy, who gives Norman a new
lease of life while widening his vocabulary, is convincingly done by
Graeme Dalling, who played Huck at the Mercury in 2010.
It's
not Chekhov; its dialogue and characters have more than a hint of the
sitcom. But it is a very enjoyable piece of theatre, well served in
this fine revival. The first night audience in Colchester gave it a
very warm reception, which augurs well for its three-month national
tour.
this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews
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