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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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Romance at the double
Charles Adey as Hugo . . . or Frederick . . . with Gina Lovell as Isabelle and Adey as Frederick . . . or HugoRing around the moon
Dudley Little Theatre
Netherton Arts Centre
**** CHRISTOPHER Fry’s 1950 translation of Jean Anouilh’s French satire of social mores among the monied aristocracy takes us back to the theatre of another age. It is an age of shooting parties, balls and
elegant drawing rooms, or in this case the elegant winter garden of a
French country house, L’Abbey Downtonne. Here we find identical twins Hugo and Frederick.
Frederick is lovelorn, sensible and sensitive and Hugo is . . . well the
opposite. Hugo is in love with Diana, spoilt daughter of a self-made millionaire, but he doesn’t know it while Frederick is desperately in love with her and knows it lots . . . or does he. Diana meanwhile is in love with Hugo but as he shows no interest and shuns her she is making do with the next best thing, his lookalike twin and is engaged to him even though she doesn't love him. Keeping up so far? So Hugo engages an impoversished ballet dancer
from Paris, Isabelle, to act as the niece of house guest Romainville to
entice Frederick and save him from a disastrous marriage. Except she comes with baggage in the shape of a
mother who, by chance, studied piano years ago with Capulet, the ladies’
companion to the owner of the house, Madame Desmortes. Confused? Throw in Diana’s father, the
ridiculously rich Messerschmann, who eats only noodles with no butter or
salt, his mistress Lady India who is having it off with his secretary
Patrice and a butler Joshua who sees all and says little and you should
have all the makings of a French farce. Except this is much more lightweight than that,
and, no fault of Dudley, French society, with an aristocrat or two in
every street, is a different animal to our English landed gentry so some
of the satire is a little lost and we are left with an etended gentle
comedy with a gossamer thin plot. Charles Adey does a good job as the twins
although perhaps a bit more welly into the part
Lyndsey-Ann Parker as Madame Desmortes has
wonderful enunciation, not a word was lost and every word had an ending,
so often lost in modern speech – and this was not a modern play
remember. It was a part played by Margaret Rutherford in the original
production and Madame is old money and old aristocracy although where
her family titles come from is rather unclear. After the revolution France ended up with more
aristocrats than it had before.
She has some lovely Lady Bracknellesque put downs
such as “No one who is plain can ever have been 20” and “If a working
man can’t kill himself on a Sunday morning we might as well have a
revolution now.” She is pushed around in her wheelchair by Chris
Ridgeway, fussing around as the put upon Capulet, a woman in that
strange position between servant and lady, the companion, a paid friend. Her real friend is as Isabelle's mother,
played by Alison O’Driscoll. a mother with ideas several stops
beyond her station. To her the commercial engagement by Hugo is
transformed into a romantic one, her daughter courted by a rich member
of the upper classes, a liaison which she has to share with Capulet and
she in turn cannot resist reluctantly telling Madame and off the hare
goes running. John Lucock is just a nervous wreck as
Romainville, worried his part in Hugo’s charade, and somewhat dubious
meeting with Isabelle which started the whole farce, will be
discovered and he will be ruined while Emily Woolman as Lady India and
Dane Gregory as Patrice, are a bit like younger versions of Howard and
Marina in Last of the Summer Wine, trying to keep their tryst, a
secret which everyone seems to know about, discrete. Their talking tango
in the second act is glorious fun. Spoiled and peevish Diana is someone it would be
hard to like in the hands of Karen Whittingham but the real drama comes
from Messerchmann, the self made zillionaire who was happiest as a poor
tailor in Kraków, played by Frank Martino, and Isabelle, demurely played
by Gina Lovell. Lovell gives us a quiet and rather insignificant
dancer paid to play a part until the madness of it all gets to her and
she clashes horns with Martino’s industrialist, which becomes a battle
between the philosophies of rich and poor, wealth and princile, which
ends with the pair ripping money up and gaily throwing it into the air -
a somewhat fanciful scene methinks The drama all blows over though and ends happily
with Madame Desmortes acting as matchmaker and apiring everyone up to
the extent you even expect Joshua, the butler, expertly played by Tony
Stamp, to end up married to any spare woman left hanging around the
stage.
Roger Clarke
11-09-14 |
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of Hugo would not go
amiss. The distinction between the two became stronger as the play went
on but could still have done with more marked differences in voice and
style so the audience could join in the fun of the confusion. Too often
we had to wait for someone to give a clue as to which one was on stage.
It should be the other characters who were baffled not the audience.