brian

Brian Capron as David Preston

Home at Seven

Grand Theatre Wolverhampton

***

DAVID Preston (Brian Capron) returns home from work at 7.00pm as usual, only to find that twenty-four hours have elapsed and it is now a day later than he thought.  

Suffering from apparent amnesia he and his already upset wife Janet (Jenny Funnell) get another shock when evidence incriminates him in a murder committed during the time he cannot account for.

Despite the promising synopsis, this play is hampered by a poor script, outdated and banal.  Written by R C Sherriff, the author of the well written Journey’s End, this was somewhat disappointing.

It was always going to be difficult for Elite Productions to make an impact when the script they were working from fails to give them a head start and sadly this production never quite succeeds.

The set was basic, in keeping with the 1950s era, but an armchair placed with its back against the fireplace was odd to say the least.  A window, surprisingly with no net curtain (popular in the 50s), adjacent to a front door meant that it was clearly obvious which character was coming to the door and proved to be somewhat comical at times. A rogue living room door which upstaged the actors by opening spontaneously at inopportune moments added to the unscripted comedy.

Some of the staging seemed contrived and unnatural, almost (but not quite) melodramatic. Actors sitting on the arms of chairs seemed very out of keeping with 1950’s middle class standards, especially when all the seating was actually unused.

Brian Capron (well known for playing Richard Hillman in Coronation Street) and Jenny Funnell (best known for playing Sandy in As Time Goes By) both worked hard to maintain the pace and attempted to breathe some life into the piece.

Matthew Hebden was convincing as Dr Sparling, a character that strangely seemed to do more of the detective work than the actual detective, Inspector Hemingway (Kevin Pallister).

This not so thrilling mystery runs till Saturday 5th November.

Rosemary Manjunath and Elizabeth Smith

01-11-16 

 

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