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Toast
Malvern Festival Theatre
*** IN THE same vein as Victoria Wood's
Dinnerladies, Toast is a gentle drama full of gritty personalities and
warm humour. This is writer Richard Bean's first
professionally produced play and as he once worked in a bread factory
for a year, it's obviously come from somewhere close to his heart. The characters - a group of men on a nightshift
(plus an e The essence of a doomed factory and its workers
are all there - the filthy banter, card games, teasing and smoking. In fact, there's probably a little more smoking and swearing than necessary and I overheard a small group of people complaining for a refund at the interval due to repetitive use of the C word. But to be fair to Bean, this play is supposed to
be set in a factory shop floor in Hull in the 1970s. Following on from various recent roles for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), Matthew Kelly plays rundown, dithering Nellie, who has been at the factory for more than 40 years. Careworn Nellie, played by Matthew Kelly, battered into submission by a lifetime of grafting long hours mixing bread in the factory He gives an understated performance witoh
emphasis on the small details, like his facial expressions and smoker's
cough. There's a strong cast
around him including Simon Greenall, better known as Alan Partridge's
only friend Michael in the I'm Alan
Partridge TV shows, as well as being
less well known for creating the voice of meerkat Aleksandr Orlov in the
Compare The Market
adverts. Greenall is the happy go lucky ageing sidekick,
who has always got a prank up his sleeve and would be lost without his
job at the bakery. He gives a slick performance and comes across as the
most likeable of the motley crew. The rest of the shift is made up of conscientious
team leader Blakey, the ambitious Colin, the cheeky young Dezzie, angry
and demotivated Peter and the strange student Lance, who adds an
unexpected twist to the evening. This play is a throwback to the working class
dramas of the 1960s where the conversation takes precedence over the
action taking place off stage. It's a gently humorous slow burner that
offers sentiment and a slice of life in a bread-making factory. Directed
by Eleanor Rhode, Toast runs to Saturday, 27-02-16 Alison Brinkworth 22-02-16 Toast continues on tour returning to the Midland 4-9 April at Nottingham Theatre Royal prior to a month's run off-Broadway at 59E59 in New York. TOAST
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ccentric
temp) - have plenty of depth, which is essential as the plot is more
about their relationships and motivations than any dramatic event.