THE ODD COUPLE 
[FEMALE VERSION]

Greville Theatre Club at the Barn Theatre

30.10.10

No poker for these Golden Girls, but hard-fought games of Trivial Pursuit. There's Mickey the cop [a no-nonsense Carol Parradine] and Vera [“the oldest known vegetable in the world”, played with a nice line in puzzled pathos by Judy Lee], Sylvie [Marcia Baldry] and Renee [Lynda Shelverton].

They meet in Olive's flat – not the neatest in New York – and suffer her warm cola and her Dead Sea Scroll sandwiches. At Greville she's played, in all her endearing sloppiness and her NJ83 sweatshirt, by Jan Ford. Wisecracking, with every line timed to a tee, but caring too: she happily offers a home to her friend Flo, who's about to be divorced from the unseen Sydney. They're chalk and cheese – the obsessively houseproud room-mate soon exasperates Olive with her “cooking, cleaning and crying”. A pretty near perfect performance here from Rita Vango, the accent, the body language, and of course the characterization and the comedy timing. These two troupers were a great team, sparking off each other and clearly comfortable in each other's company. The wordless start to the final scene just one example of the stage chemistry that had our table in tears of laughter.

The centre piece of the Second Act, the deliciously difficult dinner date, featured an even odder couple, the Costazuela brothers from the flat upstairs, replacing the Pigeon sisters of the original. They too wrung all the laughs from their slightly bizarre dialogue. Rodney Foster was the somewhat slow Manolo, John Richardson a dapper Jesus.

Neil Simon's play is superbly crafted, with old fashioned curtain lines and cracking dialogue. It was revived with style and enthusiasm in Diana Bradley's polished production.

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.

EDUCATING RITA

Greville Players at the Barn Theatre

11.11.09

Celebrating their half-century, the Greville Players continue a much older tradition in the old tithe barn, which once saw Wells, Shaw and Terry on its boards.

This pacy production brought out all the humour and pathos of the strange chemistry between the jaded lecturer, surviving on Scotch, and the gobby hairdresser with a hungry mind, determined to change her life through English Literature.

From the moment she scurried through the auditorium in search of the door to Frank's office and a new beginning, it was clear that this would be a definitive performance from Carol Parradine as the OU student caught between two cultures. Voice, accent, demeanour were all absolutely right for the part – a joy to watch. And she neatly mapped the transformation over the play's many scenes, till she is behind the desk, calling the shots, a success to eclipse Frank's failure.

Adam Thompson's Frank was a lost soul, enthusiastic but unfocused, a reluctant Pygmalion to Rita's latter-day Eliza. I liked the way he became increasingly desperate as his facile teaching techniques were revealed as inadequate faced with a student as individual as Susan, though I imagine him as a little more lined and lived-in … His clothes were unfeasibly natty, I felt.

I liked the trim-phone on the desk; I was less convinced by Frank's certificates and his skivertex books.

This is a didactic play, revisiting themes dear to Willy Russell's heart. As Rita says when she explains her hairdresser's philosophy, change must come from within, and in this play education is the key to that change.

It is thirty years old now, and I'm not sure it updates all that well – I've said before that I'm not convinced that education is seen now as an agent for social change. And the Open University has changed almost beyond recognition over the years.

But a polished revival of an important and entertaining play. Educating Rita was produced for the Greville Players by Jan Ford, and directed by John Richardson.