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Festive fun with an icy edge
Season's Greetings Wolverhampton Grand **** FAMILY Christmases are full of hopes and
dreams, of traditions, memories, good company, presents, festive wines
and spirits and good will to all men – train wrecks waiting to happen
really. This latest timely revival of Alan Ayckbourn's
Christmas classic takes us to the family Christmas of the
dysfunctional Bunker family, somewhere in John Betjeman's suburbia and
there is plenty of ha has among the ho, ho hos in the Bill Kenwright
production. We have Belinda., played by Glynis Barber, who is
drifting her way aimlessly through a stale marriage to Neville (Mark
Healy). She spends Christmas trying to be noticed by not-interested Nev
and constantly dressing the tree. Nev meanwhile would rather play with anything
electrical or mechanical hidden away in his shed than take an interest
in anything so mundane as his wife. Still being married after nine years
is a happy marriage in Nev's eyes. Then we have Nev's friend and former employee
Eddie (Ricky Groves) who has a hero worship of his ex-boss and follows
him around, ignoring his wife Pattie (Barbara Drennan) who is pregnant
with three kids already and has decided she doesn't want any more
children, including the one she is carrying.
Nev's sister Phyllis (Sue Wallace) meanwhile is a lush who creates havoc in the kitchen – she cooks the Christmas Eve meal each year - as she becomes tired and emotional as a newt amid the cooking sherry while her husband Bernard (Christopher Timothy) stoically soldiers on. Bernard is notable for two achievements in his
life. He is the world's worst doctor and he also performs the world's
worst puppet show every Boxing Day for the kids of the Bunker household
and their friends – a treat which is the stuff of legend like . . . the
Black Death or Spanish Flu. Timothy's comic timing is superb in his
truly dreadful puppet show. Then there is Belinda's sister, the decisive
Rachel (Jenny Funnell), an old(ish) maid and happy with it or maybe not
or maybe she is, or not, who brings along a guest, Clive (Mathew Bose)
in what she is hoping or not hoping will be the start of a relationship
. . . who knows, she certainly doesn't. Clive is a famous novelist who
no one has heard of and who has only written one book which no one has
read. And amid it all is Nev's uncle Harvey (Dennis
Lill), ex-security guard and your average hang 'em and flog ‘em right
wing bigot who decries the violence in society yet revels in it on TV
and has a knife tucked down his sock – just in case. So it's Merry Christmas! Just like any family
gathering behind the lace curtains in any Acacia Avenue in the land
really and that is where much of the fun comes from. These are
characters, exaggerated maybe, that are recognisable as spectres of
Christmas past, or even present, that come out of our own cupboards or
are familiar to us from friends and neighbours when the festive season
arrives.
And fun there is a plenty from a quality cast who
sparkle like the lights on the tree in a script littered with asides and
home truths – some for people of a certain age. For example Nev tells us that when you have been
drinking “a glass of water before you go to bed means you
don't get a hangover – you don't get much sleep either . . .” Finding the point where happy families all starts to go wrong is difficult. You can never be too careful according to Harvey, best to keep a nice throwing knife tucked down you sock as an incredulous Clive (Mathew Bose) looks on It never seemed to be going right and in the descent to the New Year we find Harvey has decided Clive is an obvious homosexual because he hangs around with train drivers - blame Phyllis for that one – and is a looter trying to steal presents. Meanwhile Belinda sees Clive as a chance of
sexual escape from her unfulfilling marriage and the pair would have
fulfilled something had it not been for the drumming rabbit to go off
under the tree – you have to be there for that one. They had already tried the sitting room “not in front of the telly” and the kitchen “I'm to old to do it in the kitchen” so it was left to lust under the tree in the hall - until the rabbit work everyone up. Bernard is determined to go ahead with the puppet
show, which has more sets and staging than Les Mis, which ends
in a fight with Harvey, while on Christmas Day Rachel doesn't want a
physical relationship with Clive but by December 27 she is ready to leap
into bed with him . . . maybe. That is until Harvey takes a hand. The kids are all kept just out of sight and amid a host of laughs there is an underlying current of a more serious play. We have three women in unhappy relationships
where their particular dreams ended long ago, or in the case of Rachel,
have never really seen the light of day, or the passion of night.
Phyllis, in a childless marriage, has found her escape in drink. Bernard has come to realise he is a failure as a
doctor, puppeteer and even husband, Eddie left Nev to start up on his
own, failed, and is now looking to Nev for a job again and even Harvey
is left to question the black and white world he lives in. Clive is the outsider who falls madly in lust
with a frustrated, bored suburban housewife offering the promise of
opportunity. There are some oddities though. Does anyone know of anywhere, in Britain at least, where people don't give out Christmas presents until Boxing Day? This seems to be the tradition in the Bunker
family and I could not see any point in changing the habits and
traditions of millions.
And then there is the ending, which rather like
Eric Morecambe's Grieg's Piano Concerto, is a few yards short. It is almost as if by December 27, rather like a
Christmas turkey, it has all run out of steam. The play builds to a dramatic climax and just stops. It is almost as if someone has shouted from the side of the stage: “Time up lads, end it and get off.” Nev goes back to his tinkering, pretends nothing
has ever happened, Belinda tidies the tree and everyone presumably lives
happily unhappy ever after. I suppose the end does make you think of what
really was going through hearts and minds . . . still, it was all good
fun, beautifully acted to create a family of characters you could
believe and even recognise and with five weeks to go to the audience's
own version of Season's Greetings that might just be a frightening
thought. Roger Clarke Meanwhile from atop the tree . . . **** WHEN family and friends of Neville and
Belinda Bunker get together on Christmas Eve, it was supposed to be in
preparation for a happy time with the children in Alan Ayckbourn's
hilarious comedy. But in the build-up to the festivities it's
the adults who misbehave, with alcohol-fuelled arguments,
near-infidelity alongside the Christmas tree, a row over a puppet show,
two eccentric, warring uncles, and even a shooting! So there is plenty of material for a superb
cast to get their teeth into, and their timing is just about perfect in
a series of remarkable situations, some of which will no doubt be
familiar to people in the audience. Christopher Timothy, of All Creatures Great and
Small fame, is a delight as Uncle Bernard, a not-too-successful doctor
whose annual puppet show is dreaded by the everyone present but is a
comedy classic, and Denis Lill excels in the role of Uncle Harvey, a
retired security guard with a nose for trouble. Glynis Barber sparkles as frustrated housewife, Belinda, ready for a fling with her sister's friend Clive (Matthew Bose)...but in which part of the house? Directed by Robin Herford, this happy Christmas
tale runs to 26.11.11 Paul Marston
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