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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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Joel Patel as Charles, Debbie Richardson as Madge, Richard Woodward as Rupert, Emily Beaton as the paramedic, Joan Wall as Mrs Cullen and Joanne Newton as Sarah Kindly Leave The Stage Hall Green Little Theatre **** A play within a play is nothing new, old hat in fact, but a real car crash of a row exploding and wrecking a play? That is new and, with the original play long abandoned, we are left with a claws out, backbiting, self-important battle royal of theatrical luvvies . . . with Hamlet and King Lear thrown in. It all starts gently and, let’s ne honest, boringly enough. Charles and Madge, solicitor and retired solicitor, are guests at what has turned out to be a rather uncomfortable dinner party hosted by their long-time friends Sarah and Rupert. The meal has ended, apart from the cheese, and, it appears, so has the marriage of Sarah and Rupert, apart from the divorce. It seems that there has been an almighty row, the couple are hardly talking, Rupert is about to storm out, Sarah is mad at him . . . oh, and the cheese is on the sideboard. So, you settle down for a run of the mill domestic comedy – there are not many laughs so far but there will be. It was advertised as a comedy, wasn’t it? Rupert, played with seething anger by Richard Woodward, and Sarah, a performance of demure fury from Joanne Newton, are now getting divorced and after much arguing about who gets who Charles, a matter of fact Joel Patel, will act for Sarah and Madge, a business like Debbie Richardson, will return to the legal fold to act for Rupert, so let the strife begin. It doesn’t look too promising as entertainment when we end up with Rupert needing prompts with the first act hardly started and then amid confusion we get a loop with dialogue for a scene being repeated, at which point you are wondering if anyone actually knows their lines and, more importantly, will it be noticed if you sneak away at the interval. To add to the mix we get Sarah’s mum, Mrs Cullen, a homely Jane Wall, turning up unexpectedly with her broken down car and don’t really care attitude to the impending divorce. Then another prompt for Rupert and an impassioned speech . . . and from the looks on the faces of the other cast members, something is not right, and Rupert has gone rogue, off script and the anger of a husband in a play has become the anger of a husband out of a play . . . sort of. While the rest of the cast manfully try to carry on, Rupert decides he is going to kill Charles, which might not be in the play, but Rupert is writing his own script now determined to include it . . . for real. The problem it seems occurred during the matinee of this touring production. His wife in the play is Sarah, but in real life his wife is the actress playing Madge, and Madge and her stage husband Charles have been, should we say, rehearsing rather too enthusiastically. Method acting does have its limits, keeping clothes on being one of them.
Steamer trunk Charlie - letter opening knife weilding, homicidal minded Rupert's description of Charles hiding in his place of refuge. So now we have Rupert attempting to kill Charles with a paper knife, while Sarah who was divorcing Rupert in the play, we find is besotted by him in real life – or as real as it gets in the confusion. Then there is Mrs Cullen and Madge both angered that Sarah got a London Evening Standard comedy actress award after only being in the business five minutes while they have nothing to show having given a lifetime to the stage while Charles is mocking Rupert for his lack of classical acting ability which is why he has never done Shakespeare- as well as running from him and his knife. And that leaves Rupert, accused of only being good enough as an actor to get chap laughs, not seeing any funny side. John Osborne might have looked back in anger, but Rupert looks backwards, forwards and is happily meeting it head on here and now, with barbs and insults launched at everyone and everything. Calls to close the curtain bring on the overworked prompt Angela, who can’t close the curtain as the stage crew, with nothing to do until the interval, are in the pub so the non-play is in full sight of us audience until the stage hands are back for the interval. And did we mention Edward Frobisher that celebrated Thespian and drunk. Edward plays Sarah’s golf mad father, and he was once feted as a great Shakespearian star, a name to put above the title on posters to garner bums on seats. Once being the key word here, the now being more a washed up old actor with a drink problem bumbling around the stage in the form of Paul Holtom. Edward lives on past glories, his addled brain ready to launch into soliloquies from his celebrated performances of yore as Lear or Horatio from Hamlet, a past dredged from the sodden depths at the drop of a hat, even taking cues from a steamer trunk where Charles is hiding from Rupert. . . don’t ask. And then we also have Emily Beaton arriving as the paramedic on duty at the theatre, leaping into action when a doctor was called for and none was found, and told to stay on stage in case . . . of what? So, with the play abandoned, prompts flying like gnats on a summer day, the play we thought we came to see long gone out the window and the cast ignoring convention and having their own rows and bickering, it means the fourth wall, that unseen one between actors and their world and our more mundane reality is not just broken, it is demolished. The stagehands come and close the curtains for the interval, open them again after the set time and wander back to the pub, totally unconcerned with, or probably not noticing the mayhem going on. Time for the end of the show, back they come and close the curtains. Job donel acts be timetable rather than design . . . Some of the barbs are quite telling, and witty at times, Rupert’s comment that Edward’s Lear was more Edward Lear, for example, and there are pointed theatrical and acting references used rapier like to prick and hurt. It is one of those uncomfortable comedies, it doesn’t have the drama or depth of, say, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, or the lightness of touch and out and out laughs of a Noises Off, instead we are left with the original play in tatters and observing the breakdown that is left. Hardly a play within a play, more a play abandoned and picking over the bones of what is left. There are laughs, funny moment, wonderful lines, but you are never at ease watching souls that if not completely laid bare, are at least wounded with an ending that is just that, the curtain finally closes and the car crash is hidden from view. There is no conclusion, no finale, no dénouement – it just vanishes behind the curtain. Directed by Jonathan Richardson the confusion, backbiting, attempted murder and drunken excerpts from Lear . . . and the , will continue, as long as Rupert doesn’t manage to kill Charles, to 27-07-24. Roger Clarke 19-07-24 |
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