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One for the
Birds
Birds of a
Feather The New
Alexandra Theatre *** IT'S been 13 years since one of the most
successful UK sit coms, Birds of a Feather, left our screens. The series
ran for 10 years and chalked up 101 episodes' with viewing numbers in
the millions, turning actresses Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson and Lesley
Joseph into national stars. Its success was surprising as it
was centered solely on the dubious lives of two Cockney female sisters,
Sharon and Tracey, and their glamorous ` man eating ‘ neigbour, Dorien.
Adding to that formula was a fair dose of laddish and innuendos humour
with a solid undercurrent of political incorrectness. Resurrecting the 90's TV format
and transferring it to the stage is something of a risky move and there
are clearly issues in the writing here in the attempt to time warp the
scenario into 2012. Instead of tampering with it they
have chosen to just keep it the same and that felt odd as for most of
the time you feel like part of an invited TV audience rather than in a
theatre. This is a shame as in truth the
only reason this audience are here is for the comedic ability of this
highly talented trio but only a couple of times did you feel they were
actually here in the flesh with you rather than on the box. Considering the original
characters, the plot seems a little far-fetched. Dorien, once so
superficial and sex mad is still her glamorous self, but now running an
old people's home and Tracey has developed
agoraphobia. Ok it is all a possibility but at one point, while getting
drunk, the pair of them cross analyze their personality conditions while
each explaining away their deeper physcological issues.
Thankfully the self-deprecating
humour and sarcastic digs that made the chemistry work originally are
still there so in effect the credibility of the plot and action
did not matter but it still felt of its time and very retro. There was a glimpse of the missed
potential that could have made this a very funny stage production when
at one moment Linda Robson corpsed on one of her lines and appeared to
be genuinely laughing out of character. Whether the moment was scripted
or unintentional it truly gave us what we were there to see as the
characters of Sharon, Tracey, and Dorien are so fused with the actors
that for a second it all seemed real. The trio clearly has the
experience and talent to deliver more if it was there but again some of
the production ideas seemed thin. There were a couple of
projected videos to establish scene changes that were just time fillers
and one video cue came woefully late leaving us all sitting in the dark
for what seemed like an age with nothing happening. After all of these years they
have each developed great depth and ability as performers and their
comic timing as a team remains intact. For that fact I would love to see
them in something else rather than just this as for me it lacked
anything new. Whilst the TV series had you
feeling you were there in the lounge and living right there with them,
this stage version has you feeling like you are outside and peering in
through the windows. Having said that I loved the
original TV programmes and if you are an ardent fan then you will
definitely enjoy this. Jeff Grant
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