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There's always time for a laugh It's Never Too Late Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton **** WHEN 39 years of marriage look to be going belly up it is time for the wronged wife to consider her position aided, as you would expect, by the village hall committee. All right you wouldn’t expect the village hall
committee but if the audience were the only ones who heard Susan’s
heated side of the phone conversation to her runaway husband Richard,
holed up in a love nest with Lisa Spit (that seemed to be her surname)
and demanding a divorce, the As it is the committee, who listened agog, provide everything she needs, such as friends, and everything she doesn’t need, such as advice. Linda, the personal trainer, played with a wicked smile by the splendid Judy Buxton, thinks a little lust is good for the soul . . . and anywhere else for that matter so suggests toning up and perhaps the odd toy boy. And speaking of odd they don’t come much odder than maths bore Thomas, played by Michael Shaw who brings everything down to chance and probability. His mean and moody look as a would be Lothario is embarrassingly hilarious. Joanna Van Gyseghem as the wronged wife Susan opens the play, in her fetching cardie, with an angry call from her adulterous husband Richard Then there is the committee chairman who has been carrying a torch for Susan for 18 years and her impending divorce has ignited it to the point where he is a fire risk. And through it all is affable, smiling Peter, Linda’s long suffering husband played by Jeffrey Holland - the pair are married in real life as well, incidentally. Holland, a straight man as Spike in Hi-De-Hi, manages most of the one liners for the men as well as displaying an admirable lack of tact, the sort of thing we men are famous for. I mention this because writer Ron Aldridge has given most of the really juicy lines to Linda who delivers them nicely barbed against men with her RSC honed perfection. Such lines as “women need a reason for sex - men just need a place”. As if we would be so shallow . . . all right stop sniggering at the back . . . What lines she misses Susan, played beautifully by Joanna Van Gyseghem in a collection of dowdy cardies and, for contrast, a posh evening dress, fills in with a nice line of put downs all of her own for added effect. Between them they provide most of the laughs - with men the butt of many of the jokes. Not that this is an anti-men rant though, it’s not a girls’ night out job. The humour is gentle and the cast of six are all believable - even wayward husband Richard, played in suitable sackcloth and ashes by Richard Shaw. HUMAN FRAILTIES Not only are the characters believable but we start to like them and even care about them and their human frailties. There is Thomas, no doubt a virgin, dutifully writing down advice on how to impress a woman, Henry, pompous and protective, Peter and Linda, life and soul of the party - sometimes even the same party - but with kind hearts - and then there is Susan. A bit frumpy, homely, but who has spent her time bringing up a family, being a wife and mother, never herself. She is angry, vulnerable and looking for some sort of escape and hope out of her mess. The result is a well-crafted, good natured comedy about relationships. It is not a farce - no trousers around ankles in sight - just an chapter in the life of a 50 something housewife and how she copes with it. As with all Ian Dickens’ productions the play benefits from a solid, well built and thought out set. Nothing fancy just something that looks the part. This production is also directed by Ian Dickens this is the third of the four Dickens’ plays in the Grand’s four week rep season with Norman Pace and Victor Spinetti in the Agatha Christie country house murder spoof Murdered to Death the final play from 27-07-10. It’s Never Too Late runs until 24-07-10. Roger Clarke
Learn a word a day No 317: The female equivalent of a cuckold is a cuckquean, a word first seen in English in 1562. Meanwhile . . .
Here's one we prepared earlier . . . **** WHEN Susan Shaw's husband announces he has found a younger woman and wants a divorce as she approaches her 58th birthday, she decides it's never too late to kick start her own life. And that leads to a string of hilarious situations when her long time friends offer advice on a new direction, and two grey-haired colleagues on the village fete committee even fall out vying to be her 'toy boy'. Ron Aldridge's comedy is beautifully staged as the penultimate offering in Ian Dickens Productions' successful summer play season that has been delighting large audiences at the Grand. Joanna Van Gyseghem is superb as the wronged Susan who starts to accept her friends' advice to be more selfish by booting out their regular committee meetings, with food and drink provided, at her home. Shapely Judy Buxton excels as Susan's pal, Linda Bridges, earning warm applause for her get-fit sessions, though Joanna looked more 88 than 58 in her attempts to copy the young actress whose real-life husband, Walsall-born Jeffrey Holland, impressed in the role of her plain-speaking hubby, Peter Bridges. Michael Shaw (Thomas) and Stan Pretty (Henry) sparkled as Susan's would-be veteran toy boys, while Ian Saynor, the want-away husband, turns up late in the show with a surprise proposition of his own. It's Never Too Late runs to Saturday night (24.07.10), with the comedy Murdered To Death completing the season next week. Paul Marston |
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padding the whole thing out to last two hours would have been a bit of a
struggle. See what I mean.