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A testing time for marriage
Garden Party: Colin Baker as Peter and Peter Amory as Ray The Final Test Wolverhampton Grand ***** IT is said that the average bloke only
knows his wife has left him when he can't find a clean shirt – or clean
plate - and the washing up has piled up in the sink. In Peter's case, it was when the removal men had
left with all the furniture and the new owners of what had been his home
arrived to move in. Not that he allowed that minor inconvenience to
trouble him unduly as he continued to sit happily in the garden
listening to his radio as England struggled along in the final Test at
the Oval. This is novelist and Radio 4 producer Chris Paling's first stage play and is a clever construction with a whole raft of different levels and emotions cemented together by some sharp comedy - and cricket. It is no surprise that Paling is in his late 50s
as much of the humour comes from observing the institution of marriage
when it has become as comfortable and as worn as an old cardigan, part
of life's furniture - and that takes both time and a life's worth
of experience. I suspect that also means that it also a play
which is appreciated more but an audience who, shall we say, are more
mature theatregoers – not quite over the hill yet perhaps but with a
pretty decent view of the other side. As a result much of the laughter is of the
done that, been there, how true, mine does that as well, variety. Former Time Lord Colin Baker excels as the
infuriating, decent, loyal, gentlemanly, selfish, stuck-in-a-rut Peter,
the retired manager of an engineering firm, who lives for cricket and
sees a Test match as almost a spiritual experience demanding his
attention above all else. He is the sort of bloke who would be
devastated if he knew he had hurt someone yet does it all the time with
industrial strength insensitivity. His long suffering wife Ruth, played with a sort
of resigned, belligerent exasperation by Karen Ford - art teacher Miss
Booth in Grange Hill - has sold the house from under him and perhaps
Peter's interest in his wife and all that is going on around him – and
his pet dog-like trust - can be summed up by the fact he signed all the
paperwork without ever bothering to see what it was. Into their lives come Ray, played by Peter Amory,
remembered as Emerdale's Chris Tate, and Susan, played by Nicola Weeks
who was seen in BBC's Bleak House, who have unwittingly bought their
home.
Paling cleverly manages to blend together two
ages of marriage with the doubts and fears of Ray and Susan who have
been married 10 years, and trying for a baby for five, and the routine,
unnoticing, caring, but hardly showing it, relationship of Peter and
Ruth as they head towards 40 years of an unremarkable marriage which had
seen two miscarriages – a fact that gives an element of common ground. The youngsters have the added problem of an
interfering mother placing an added burden on a marriage still trying to
find its feet Yet despite the dispute about finding the last
occupant has taken up residence in the garden, both couples come to
realise each has something to learn from the other. Ray is basically a nice bloke who likes to get on
with everyone and is all for an easy life in his marriage except finding
Peter living among the petunias and his wife's reaction has started him
thinking about where his marriage is and where it is going as he strikes
up a friendship with his garden squatter. Susan, who is a bit of a harridan, is determined
to remove Peter and sees Ray as weak and ineffectual rather than kind
and compassionate. She brings in the law in the shape of a constable
played by Michael Garland who finds Peter's logic about trespass beyond
him. Can you be trespassing if you owned the property when you entered
and have not left? HIDDEN TALENTS But, in a bizarre twist, Garland's PC reveals
hidden talents which only serve to infuriate Susan even more. Everything comes to a head when Ruth, who has
gone off to Bexhill-on-Sea with her lover to frolic naked in the waves
summer and winter, paint and write poetry, returns and both couples have
to face up to who they are - and we find Susan is just as vulnerable and
uncertain as the rest. The action all takes place in a back garden of a
rather dowdy suburban house. It is a clever set although the house is
perhaps not as up-market as the script might suggest. At times the play is touching and has some
serious, poignant moments which must strike chords about couples unable
to have children, about caring and about relationships but it is also
well observed, funny and gloriously witty without resorting to old jokes
and one liners from some Bumper Joke Book. It is skillfully written, beautifully acted and a
pleasure to watch – if a little uncomfortable for the men in the
audience, most of whom probably had to suffer endless “you do that”
comments on the way home. And sadly, we probably do. Roger Clarke Meanwhile from the Vauxhall End . . . **** CAN you imagine moving into a new home and
finding the previous owners had left something behind in the garden - in
this case an abandoned husband. That's the unlikely plot in the last offering of
Ian Dickens Productions' summer play season, but it works extremely
well, with former Doctor Who Colin Baker in blistering form as
cricket-loving hubby, Peter. He's so tied up listening to a radio commentary
of the latest Test match, sprawled on a comfy chair in the back garden
of their suburban home, he can scarcely believe it when his wife of 40
years, Ruth (Karen Ford) reveals she has sold the house and is off to
live with her lover in Bexhill-on-sea. And when the new owners Ray (Peter Amory) and
Susan (Nicola Weeks) turn up he refuses to move, so they call the
police. That leads to a hilarious scene when the local
bobby (Michael Garland) accepts Peter's explanation that he can't be
trespassing as he has never left the premises, and the ballroom dancing
enthusiast officer then demonstrates his tango skills after hearing
music on the portable radio. The crazy situation uncovers problems in the
young couple's marriage, but there's a happy ending all round in Chris
Paling's skillfully written play - enjoying a world premiere – to
21-07-12 Paul Marston
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