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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synopsis, this play is hampered by a poor script, outdated and banal.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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