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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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Late Entry
Highbury Players
The Abbey Theatre, Nuneaton.
**** THEATRE festivals have a certain protocol
about them as players and adjudicators strut their well-trodden paths
across the stage and David Tristram’s well observed one act play follows
their roles within the scheme of . . . amateur theatre things. This was Highbury’s
entry in the All England Theatre Festival, and the two-hander served
them well taking them to the Central Area final at Nuneaton, utilising
their successful pairing from Educating
Rita, Rob Phillips and Emily Armstrong. The plot is simple, or so it first appears, as
Armstrong appears in a Scottish monologue with an accent that not only
wanders around Scotland but visits relatives in the North of England and
has a holiday in Ireland across the way. Her acting ability is, should we say, challenged
by the part while a broken lamp and slow, quick costume changes in hit
and miss blackouts, all add to the impression this is a play several
workshops and months of rehearsals away from reaching a stage where it
could be classed as merely bad. And as Armstrong leaves the stage Phillips enters
as the adjudicator, whose role in these things, is to look for the
positives – a position reviewers can also find themselves in. So Phillips discusses the role played by the
chair, the table, a truly dreadful piece of embroidery of a missing cat
and anything else he can waffle on about before he finally runs out of
nice, or at let not nasty, things to say and breaks down, telling
the truth – the play was . . . shite. I am sure it is a sentiment many an adjudicator
would like to express in early rounds of festivals. His honesty would
not have been quite so bad had it not come in the middle of the play as
Armstrong returns for the rest of her performance to find the
adjudicator condemning her acting, direction, lighting and given time,
no doubt her parents for having created her Whereupon Armstrong tells of how she has had to
do everything on her own and this was her one chance to give her
disabled and dying six year old daughter, operating lights and sound, a
chance of working in the theatre before she shuffles off her mortal
coil. It is a moving performance, with the bonus of
laughs, winning her the adjudicators acting prize for overcoming all her
hardships – except it was all a lie and when she is confronted by the
adjudicator in the dressing room we get another tale of how she was
bullied at school and at work and this was her way of fighting back. Moving stuff again and another lie but one that
at least justifies her acting prize as the adjudicator throws caution to
the wind and heads off into the night with her. Armstrong gives a measured performance with a mix
of terrible acting, and you need talent to be that bad, and pathos
balanced by Phillips’ initial appearance full of rather pompous,
adjudicator speak which finally collapses as he realises there is
nothing good to say about the play. From there was see a human side, taken in twice
by an actress who is a skilled liar, although we are left wondering
whether her tale of bullying is really all fantasy. It is a play written for laughs and the pair, directed by Denise Phillips, extract as many as they could out of a short play – but there is also some pathos in there as the actress bares her soul, or at least we think she does. Denise Phillips kept up a good pace and there was
a nice contrast between the initial adjudication and emotion driven
prize giving and the adjudicator’s later reaction when he realises he
has been conned, twice, by good acting which never showed in the
initial play. When it came to the real adjudicator, Robert
Meadows, he had much good to say about the production and the acting,
without having to resort to praising the chair and table, incidentally,
and although Late Entry did not come out on top of the six
semi-finalists to win a place in the English finals at Evesham later
this month, it was still a performance which did Highbury proud.
31-05-14 Roger Clarke |
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