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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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Clever cast make this day a joyDay of Reckoning
Swan Theatre Amateur Company Swan Theatre, Worcester **** I HAVE just realised what
a soft spot I've got for plays that involve committee meetings and plays
about fêtes. Two by Alan Ayckbourn –
Ten Times Table
and Gosforth's Fête,
one of them about
organising a pageant and the other about, yes, organising a fête
–
are what come immediately to mind, but I
can now add another one to this small but happy assembly. The squabbles, the petty crises and the domestic
upheavals, set against the background of an imminent and significant
local event that demands co-operation between the organisers, give added
spice to the furtive affairs that in other plays can be simply another
part of the plot. So it was that a cold night in August found me
eavesdropping on the assorted souls who had gathered on a cold night in
January to pave the way for their village fête, due to come about in six
months' time – and it was a pleasure to be there. Pauline Lowe's studio
production finds the company of eight – seven of them women – in top
form as the sharply delineated characters whom writer Pam Valentine has
created. Geoffrey Morris is the irascible vicar, the thorn
among the roses, the man of God who turns out to have his mind on
matters more earthly and who eventually finds a way of letting down the
bouncy castle that has been worrying him ever since the fête bade its
final visitor goodbye. This is an excellent, gritty portrayal,
illuminated in its later stages by his appearance as Friar Tuck because
the fête has insisted on fancy dress. The bouncy castle is the only point at which the
production lets itself down. It is supposed to be visible through the
window of the village hall, so it would have been a good idea to rope in
a paintbrush and give us an idea of what it looked like. Instead, a
plain grey wooden wall a few inches beyond the glass invites us to
suspend disbelief, which is a shame. Barbara Wright gives us the pugnacious, gossipy
Ethel, who has been in charge of the tea tent for 23 years and who
punches out her opinions like a popgun on overtime. Emma Fletcher rather
overdoes the overwhelming shyness with which schoolteacher Angela is
afflicted, making it hard to imagine her in control of a covey of mixed
infants, but she comes engagingly out of her shell after the forthright,
horsey, no-nonsense Marjorie (Michelle Whitfield) has taken her under
her wing and presumably under the bedclothes – and left us with the
thought that one of the perks of being an atheist is that you can say No
to vicars. Sue Smith is Pauline, long-suffering wife of the
vicar, with whom she shares the final scene in which he seeks a
rapprochement and which produces a will-they-won't-they moment that is
not resolved before the lights go down. Sue Hawkins is Gloria, the
committee secretary – ever-defensive; full of stress and anguish; the
one who manages to get the vicar to show his softer side. Sue Daniels comes
forthright and stroppy as Sally, and Anne Crowther brings us the
eccentric and very deaf Mavis, who is coming up to her 84th
birthday and who doesn't knit willy-warmers. It is a joy. No frills or furbelows – apart, perhaps, from the statue of a cherub with a taste for archery. No, this is just an honest-to-goodness example of responsibilities that are met and shared and handled with total assurance. To 28.8.10.
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