|
|
|
|
|
|
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. |
|
|
Sleeping dogs reveal their secrets
Dangerous Corner Hall Green Little Theatre **** TRUTH will out
if you don't let sleeping dogs lie. This is the Priestley piece that
prompts joined-up aphorisms and there's nothing to laugh about. Not that this deterred
a first-night full-house audience that was clearly capable of laughing
at anything. It would have been more fun reviewing the patrons than the
excellent action on stage, but you can't win
ۥem
all. This was J B Priestley's first play, written in
1932, and while he might well have been nonplussed by its reception he
would undoubtedly have been impressed by what Edward James Stokes's
production has made of it. There's a violent death, there are broken
hearts, there are recriminations. It's a morass of serious stuff in
sundry forms – but that audience didn't seem to notice. Particularly in
the first half, this was ho-ho-ho time. At one point, somebody says, “Is this your idea
of a joke?” He should have asked the audience – but no, I really mustn't
review the patrons. Two people bestride the production. James Weetman,
as Robert, is a towering presence. Most of the time, he is an anguished
soul; a powerful, large-lunged figure. His problem is that he's the kind
of man who, faced with a smouldering fire, can't resist poking it with a
stick. It is his insistence on probing further and further into a bygone
tragedy that unveils a small world of lies and deceits, peopled by a
mixed bag of largely unhappy citizens. One of them is his wife Freda, played by the
evergreen Jean Wilde – purposeful of movement and a joy of
clearly-spoken dialogue; a no-nonsense characterisation that bespeaks an
iron will and takes no prisoners and yet produces one of the most
realistic tearful episodes to have come my way. Christine Bland makes Miss Mockeridge a pleasing
busybody and Phil Astle is Charles, an interesting study in wry,
off-the-cuff remarks in the first half which becomes something pretty
serious in the second. Kate Campbell (Olwen) and Samantha Holden (Betty)
– a talented recent recruit who learned her trade with Birmingham youth
group Stage 2 – offer attractive excellence and James Marlow-Smith
scores decisively as the anguished Gordon. It's well worth a visit – and future audiences
can't possibly contain as many hyenas as the first one. To 28.05.11. John Slim |
|
|
|
