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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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A delightful journey back in time
A world in another time. Pa and Ma Larkin, Bob Graham and Joan Wakeman. recreate life in the more innocent days of the 1950s The Darling Buds of May The Nonentities The Rose Theatre, Kidderminster **** ROSS Workman's
joyous production achieves the ABC of necessities that any airing of
this H E Bates classic demands. It takes us back more than half a
century, and it's alcoholic, bucolic and comic. It's a delight. The month in which we
are privileged to watch Pa and Ma Larkin rule the roost in their corner
of the Kent countryside is sufficient to ensure that we understand the
propensities of the bluebell wood and share Pa's pleasure at discovering
that Ma is in a primrose-and-bluebell mood. Certainly, we are left in no doubt of where Pa
stands in relation to the world. He decrees that all governments are
dishonest, he has never heard of The Times, and we know that if
Ma dons her pink nightgown, it's Friday.
Bob Graham is Pa – brash, bibulous and
unswervingly sociable; the king of experimental cocktails and the
constant quarry of the taxman. This is a splendid, gravel-voiced
performance. Pa loves his lot in life. He is a man in a personal
paradise; clearly the man in charge; the man fitted to take
responsibility for the local gymkhana in an emergency. No crisis will
overcome him. He has in Ma (Joan Wakeman) a helpmeet who has
borne him six children and whom he is now seriously considering
marrying. Again, this is a heart-warming account of a real human being.
She is often phlegmatic, but she has an air of permanency of which the
Rock of Gibraltar could justifiably be enviable. She is Pa's
anchor. Rebecca Williams is their eldest daughter,
Mariette, so-called because of a nominal mix-up at the font. She brings
fresh-faced joy to the household, already heavily populated and now
augmented by Stefan Austin as Cedric – informally known at Charlie, a
young man who works in the tax office and whose personality
understandably blossoms under the sociable influence of the Larkins. Pa's sociability moves to excess with the visit
of Miss Pilchester (Sandy Tudor). He also spreads goodwill to all men by
way of fireworks – satisfyingly portrayed by Murray Bridges and Derek
Taylor in the lighting department. Alan Minaker, as the tax inspector, and Colin
Young (the Brigadier) add to a mischievous merry-go-round, in which
Rachel Lawrence, Kerena Taylor, Dennis Beasley and Carolyn Brinton are
pleasingly enmeshed. This is a reassuringly reliable company – and all
praise to the team who worked on the split stage, neither half of which
somehow gives the impression of being overcrowded. It's the penultimate
production of The Nonentities' season, which is going to offer a
lip-smacking finale in June with Noel Coward's Present Laughter.
Meanwhile, it's laugh with the Larkins.
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