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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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High praise for high rise living The Things We Do for Love Highbury Theatre Centre Sutton Coldfield **** THIS is the first time I have seen an Alan
Ayckbourn play and been less impressed by the plot than by the set. This is in no way to decry either the play or an
excellent company of four: just me trying to say that the action takes
place on a tiny stage – in three flats on three floors, and that the way
in which designer Malcolm Robertshaw and his team from the Highbury
workshop have pulled out all the stops so that we do actually see three
floors is astonishing. I have never seen this slice of the Ayckbourn
catalogue before, and I don't know how other productions have tackled
the challenge it presents, or indeed whether the playwright has given
precise instructions on how it should be staged. What I do know is that
this is one of the most impressive sets I have seen. It's a mighty
miracle on a pocket handkerchief. The flat on the bottom floor is in fact under the
stage, with a specially constructed staircase as its approach; the one
on the floor above is on the stage; and the top floor flat is reached by
a long staircase and has a floor strong enough to be walked on – a
floor, moreover, that is provided with a viewing hole through which we
are able to see what goes on up to knee level. It's excellent. Quite
remarkable. But stage walls – the sort that are largely cut away
and are simply representational – are not to be trusted. On the night I
went, a cushion was thrown in the ground-floor flat – and went straight
into the lobby, via the bit of wall that wasn't by the front door. Most of the plot centres on the middle-aged Barbara
(Dee White) and Hamish (Richard Irons), who is attracted to her so
strongly that we are waiting to see whether he is going to leave his
young wife, Nikki (Julie Waddell), after Barbara has provided them with
the upstairs flat until their house becomes available.
Heavily involved, although not necessarily vital to
the story, is Gilbert (Dave Douglas). He is the noisy transvestite in
the bottom flat, and as long as he is down there we can only see him
from the neck up. He is well in view, however, by the time he has got a
broken leg – his contribution to a scene in which one of the other
characters has a black eye and a broken arm and another has a head in
bandages. They could have come straight from Saturday night in the A &
E. This is not by any means one of Ayckbourn's funniest
plays, although Dave Douglas makes the most of the possibilities. No,
the inter-action it demands is too intense for that, and Dee White is
required to lay on the angst with a trowel, with plenty of sobbing to
support what appears to be a very short fuse, so that we have Barbara
tagged as a bit of a prude whose defences are suddenly down. Richard Irons, similarly, is encased in a fiery
character for whom, in general, life is real and life is earnest and
life is vegetarian. Julie Waddell, however, has an attractive innocent
sparkle which she deploys to excellent effect as the reassuringly
uncomplicated Nikki charms her “Big Bear” in the early stages. This is an evening of excellence, quite superbly
packaged by the backstage wizards. So superbly packaged, indeed, that it
has been staged as the first production after the summer lay-off –
because nowhere else in the season would give sufficient breathing-space
to build this splendid set. To 2.10. John Sli
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