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Asking for whom the bell tolls
Dusk Rings a bell
Highbury Theatre Centre
*****
THE Highbury Players take another
emotional relationship tale, this time Dusk Rings a Bell, up the stairs
and into the boudoir of their intimate studio theatre. Stephen Belber's play
of a forgotten teen romance is a well-crafted gripping and realistic
drama.
Molly, a now divorced 39 year-old woman,
returns to a beach house where her family once spent the summer in the
hope of locating a note she hid there long ago. Enter Ray her partner of
this almost forgotten brief encounter and the scene is set for them to
recollect the past and realise the gaping differences in their own
personalities and respective destinies. 
Jayne Lunn who plays Molly is quite outstanding
in her role and is a formidable force as the confident career woman.
Molly has her quirks and vulnerabilities and Lunn added to those a
certain level of sexuality in her performance as the acting calls for a
reasonable amount of intimacy with her opposite character.
Mark Nattrass as Ray and Jayne Lunn
as Molly meet again by the eastern seaboard beach house where they once
had a fling
Miss Lunn was last seen in Shakers at
Highbury and made quite an impression then so it was great to see her
close up and in a lead role.
Equally matched in his ability is Mark Nattrass,
a familiar Highbury face, whose performance as Ray evokes a man who
can't quite reconcile his lack of courage or commitment to care. It is a
failing that has seen him being sent to prison and this both intrigues
and upsets Molly. Mr Nattrass like Miss Lunn displayed a wide range of
skill as they story develops and the potential reconciliation is
continually derailed by their pasts.
What is to be commended too from this pairing is
the commitment to play out some quite intimate moments in the studio
space, always easy for professionals but harder to do in an amateur
setting. This made the relationship far more believable and gave
credibility to the intricate mood swings.
Faye Hatch directs the play - her first time ever
at the helm - and she is to be congratulated as she seems to have drawn
out a strong level of confidence in her cast to enter some quite dark
and awkward moments.
Congratulations to go to the production team with
their simple effective `Boardwalk ‘set, isolated lighting and projection
which all fully captured the seaside location and helped tell the story.
I have said it many times before that sometimes
amateur theatre can easily outperform the pros and this is a production
that again proves the point. To 18-05-13
Jeff Grant
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