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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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Frank (Andy Jones) finds the Christmas spirit alive and well in Julie (Bexs Prry) A Kick in the Baubles Sutton Arts Theatre ***** They say you can choose your friends, but neighbours, in-laws and relatives are selected by fate - and if you are not on the best of terms with that most fickle doler out of destiny . . . Christmas can become the season of not so much good cheer, as bad fear. We open with Frank Bailey who, frankly, hates Christmas, and sticks his head through the fourth wall on a regular basis to give us his views on the festive season, women, relatives and anything else that raises his ire. He patently does not wish it could be Christmas every day and has lost any semblance of goodwill to all men, women or indeed supermarkets that are open in the middle of the night He has just returned from Asda piled up with bags, or at least wife Jean was piled up with the bags, looking like a pack mule, he limited himself to a four pack of Fosters. The mammoth shop was in the small hours of Christmas Eve morning with Frank moaning about whether it was all needed, where it all was to go, and . . . the impending and traditional festive purgatory of the arrival of Jean's stuck up sister Doreen and her husband Harry, along with their daughter, Alex, who is not even bright enough to be described as intellectually challenged. The play revolves around Frank and Jean, and Andy Jones and Joanne James carry it superbly with impeccable timing and sardonic humour, and which, if one is honest, speaking as a bloke, might include conversations that drift a little too close to home for many a husband in the audience . . . just saying.
The central couple, Jean (Joanne James) and Frank (Andy Jones) Alex, played with a delightfully vacant air (mainly between the ears) by Sophia Firkins, brightens up the Christmas gloom for Frank when she arrives to say she can't come as she is spending Christmas with her boyfriend. Frank's unbridled joy is misplaced as she still turns up later on; but let us give Frank his few moments of euphoria for now. Harry, a sort of executive with his own company, played by Phil Shaw, has an obsession with sex, an interest which seems more hopeful than Lothario to be honest . . . but dark horses and all that. He is also obsessed with a sort of wide-boy speak, where currency is measured in ks, with his 40k car, 120k apartment in Spain, not to mention his whatever k boat and so on. Lynette Coffey's Doreen arrives with the attitude that her sister, the neighbourhood, her brother-in-law, indeed Christmas itself has fallen below her own superior standards and Lynette gives her a wonderful supercilious and imperious air with views on everything from artificial trees. such as the one in the corner, to the age of Jean's three-piece suite. You have the feeling this is not so much visiting her sister - older sister as she reminds us - in a sort of family festive celebration and more a sort of Royal visit t to inspect the natives – in short, slumming it. Meanwhile, the pair are happy to partake in festive cheer(s) slinging it down their necks having made their traditional generous annual contribution to all the wassailing with a bottle of Blossom Hill at about 0.0056k a bottle (that’s around £5.60 if Alex is struggling). Interrupting the sororal sparring, enter next door neighbours Gary and Julie, who it seems are intent on starting a family and seem to be availing themselves of the leporine method – that’s like rabbits for Alex's linguistic benefit. Gary, played by Dan Holyhead, is loud, brash, tactless and was missing when inhibitions were handed out. He has had a karaoke machine for Christmas and seems to know every song Queen ever recorded. He's having fun and expects everyone to join him – there is no alternative on offer. Bexs Perry's Julie has had a new pair of . . . let's just call them attributes, for Christmas and seems to have a libido to match, something not lost on the ever-hopeful Harry. Bexs manages a lovely balancing act of remaining bubbly and sexy without ever drifting into crude in a performance of Barbara Windsor style sparkle - great fun.
Doreen (Lynette Coffey) in karaoke mode with Gary (Dan Holyhead) as backing and a despairing Frank Amid the chaos we discover that Frank and Jean's daughter Milly stormed out some time ago and the estrangement still hurts, so when she returns for a visit the playwright, Gordon Steel, pauses the bedlam and farce and we get a very human story. We never know why she walked out, it is implied that Jean was somehow involved but that hardly matters and it is Frank, argumentative, cantankerous, festive foiling Frank, who calms the troubled waters and reunites the family with Tilde Porter's Milly back in the fold, but on her own terms. So much so she introduces boyfriend Darren, played by Daniel Charlton, a quiet lad from the posh part of town. There are still revelations to come, whether Harry's affair, or his business affairs, new carpets and Doreen's obsession, Alex's on off love life. Milly's secret and Frank and Jean's hopes of survival through the mayhem before we get to Frank's dream of a silent, stress and relative/neighbour free night. The convincing set, designed by director Maureen George, maintains Sutton Arts' high standards while Elijh Topliss and Mellissa Arslan on lighting and Archie Exhall on sound did a fine job on David Ash ton's complex sound and lighting plot. There are some lovely lines in there, the alphabet soup one a favourite, along with some bawdiness, a bit of swearing for those of a more delicate disposition, plenty of laugh out loud moments, and, perhaps best not to look too close, a few home truths hidden in there . . . but we will let that pass . . . quickly please. Steel had a long association with The Hull Truck Company and there are hints of John Godber in the glimpse he gives us into lives of the characrers that at times have hints of our own relationships or perhaps more often, lives not too divorced from people we know. It adds an individual personal element. With five relationships in play though there is not a lot of emotional depth on show and we are skimming the surface with a lot of threads to follow but, that being said, it is great fun in the splendid tradition of the Great British farce creating a delightful romp with wonderful acting from a superb cast bringing infectious madness and mayhem to a dank winter's evening. To 07-02-26. Roger Clarke 30-01-26 |
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