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Family secrets bite into the Big Apple Miriam on 34th Street Old Joint Stock
DAN Hagley is gaining a well deserved
reputation for his well observed one act plays and this latest offering
has raised the bar once again. Miracle on 34th Street, the original 1947 version
with Natalie Wood and Edmund Gwenn not the tedious unoriginal remakes,
is probably the best Christmas film ever. Miriam is not quite as Christmassy, but it is set
in New York on 34th Street in the festive period and is the OJS's
contribution to the holiday season. Miriam (Alison Belbin) arrives in New York after
her first flight and first time out of England to spend Christmas with
her son Michael (Dan Hagley) and his wife Kathy (Rina Mahoney) and their
new baby Amy. Amy, incidentally, is created by a tablecloth.
Bother Michael and his mother have difficult
secrets they want to reveal to each other and as Miriam lets slip that
she wrote to agony aunt Deirdre in the Sun about Michael being a tad on
the gay side . . . well a lot that way really, there might be a bit of
explaining to do about how he ending up married with a daughter living
in New York. Alison manages to get away with being just
Miriam, the widowed Brummie mewsagent mum in New York, but Dan has to
double up as a taxi driver, floor indicator on the way to the 16th floor
apartment and the phantom of the opera. Rina is another holding down multiple jobs as
airport security, off-hand New York waitress and Christine Daaé
in the Broadway production of Phantom. Funny you would have thought the
Broadway production would have had a bigger stage and more spectacular
sets, as Miriam might have said. Miriam enjoyed her favourite musical though and
was off to see Phantom again on her second day in the Big Apple. The humour is gentle and relies on what people
say and do rather than one liners and witty retorts as we watch two
disturbing revelations, for those involved, slowly being accepted as we
head to a happy conclusion. The play is directed by Jenny Stephens and
produced by Sharon Foster and this particular Christmas miraclette runs
at the OJS until 18-12-10
**** CLEVER writer Dan Hagley has again
demonstrated his skill at penning amusing short plays in this lively
tale of Birmingham shopkeeper Miriam's first ever trip abroad to visit
her son, now living in New York. What should be a joyful reunion turns into shock
and awe because both are concealing secrets that will create conflict in
the Big Apple and boy, can this Brummie mummy bite. Birmingham actress Alison Belbin is a delight as
Miriam who reveals that she had, in the past, written to a newspaper
agony aunt about her boy's gay tendency, so some questions obviously
need answering when she meets his 'partner', Kathy in their 16th floor
apartment on 34th Street....and baby Amy! A terrific performance, too, from Rina Mahoney,
playing the baby's mum, Kathy, but also appearing as Christine in a
sketch from Phantom of the Opera, a restaurant customer, airport
security officer and a waitress. Hagley the writer is a skilled actor, too,
playing Michael whose transfer from Birmingham to New York had a most
unexpected reason, and he even turns his hand to the extra roles of
harrassed cab driver and the Phantom Full marks are also due to the white table cloth
which, swiftly folded, doubles for baby Amy. Directed by Jenny Stephens and produced by Sharon
Foster, Miriam on 34th Street is a miracle of multy task acting. It runs
to 18.12.10 Paul Marston
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