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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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Mr Orton still entertaining
Lodger with intent: Joshua Raven as the mysterious and malevolent Mr Sloane with his accommodating landlady Kath played by Helen Lamas Entertaining Mr Sloane Swan Theatre Amateur Company Swan Theatre, Worcester **** JOE Orton was the enfant terrible of the
British theatre of the 1960s. Young, fresh and with a line in black
comedy that shocked, challenged, outraged and amused in equal measures. It might have been the Swinging Sixties but Orton
had swung too far for many with sexual content, language and innuendo
which these days seem tame but then gave theatregoers of a more delicate
disposition an attack of the vapours. Entertaining Mr Sloane was Orton's first stage
play, first performed in 1964 where it lost money but garnered critical
praise. Three years later Orton, aged 34, was dead, battered to death
with a hammer by his long-time lover Kenneth Halliwell who then took a
fatal drugs overdose. The dramatist had become the drama in what became
the sensation of the latter half of 1967. Forty eight years on Mr Sloane no longer has the
ability to shock anyone but the most unworldly maiden aunt but still has
some classic funny lines – “It's all any reasonable child can expect if
the dad is present at the conception” – and it still has unnerving,
disturbing characters. Helen Lamas truly sparkles as Kath, the rather
less than intellectually gifted daughter, who entertains Mr Sloane to
the point of becoming pregnant. Not that that is anything new we
discover. She is desperate for a substitute for the son she
had to give up for adoption as a schoolgril, and a replacement for the
husband, or similar, who abandoned her, or was taken from her by his
parents depending upon who you believe, and just wants to be loved . . .
a lot. She sees Sloane as fair game to fulfil all three, son and lover
as D H Lawrence might have it.
Her father, Kemp, played by the excellent Frank
Welbourne, has failing sight, failing health and knows a devastating,
and dangerous, fact about the mysterious Sloane. He gives a wonderful
performance as a cantankerous, frail, obstinate old man. Joshua Raven as Sloane makes a splendid stab at
the mysterious lodger, the friendly neighbourhood psychopath. It is not
easy to portray a charismatic nutter devoid of feelings or morality and
Raven managed it in some style although he could perhaps give us a
little more quiet evil in his character at times to give us the odd
shiver up the spine. After all by the time we finish we have him down
for one murder for definite, a probable killing, a likely homicide and a
fair chance he did his parents in as well to achieve orphan status. Nice
bloke. Raven gives us mystery and a delicious streak of nastiness but a
bit more quiet menace might make Mr Sloane a tad more entertaining. Holding it all together is Kath's brother Ed,
played by director Simon Atkins after an actor dropped out earlier in
the production. He is a bit of a Boysie figure, in charge of everything,
in control, or at least he thinks so. He controls his sister and her
life and at first tries to control Sloane but slowly we see he is under
the influence of the lodger amid homosexual undertones. There are strange relationships all round with
brother and sister being nasty to their father while Sloane
physically and verbally abuses him. Both Ed and Kath take Sloane's side against their
father yet he is the only one who can see through Sloane, who knows who
and what he is. Even when brother and sister could not fail to
realise what Sloane was they still take his side against their father,
preferring a share of a live Sloane to some sort of justice for a dead
father.
Missing from the characters in Orton's play is
any love or real affection. Kath has plenty of emotion, happy to scream
and burst into tears at the drop of a lodger, but there is no real
feeling between any of the characters. The father is attacked by all, Kath is either
seducing Sloane, blatently, or pleading with her brother, Ed cares
little for anyone, although he wants to control his sister, but he does
seem to have developed a dangerous attraction to Sloane, while Sloane .
. . is a psychopath. Relationships are fractured, conversations
abrasive and not always logical which means the audience can never
settle in anything approaching a comfort zone. It is difficult to
identify or have any real empathy with any character but somehow it is
strangely compelling, like watching a slow motion train crash. The play is still a child of the 60s and these
days a little old fashioned and no longer seen as avante garde or
cutting edge but Atkins not only gave us a fine performance as the
pompous, self made Ed but kept a tight rein on the production with some
lovely touches, such as when Kath removes Mr Sloane's coat or the bloody
minded insolence of Mr Sloane towards his employer Ed. The set, designed by Andy Hares, is simple, a
working class house at the end of a rubbish tip, seen towering in the
background, and looks the part although if anything can be done about
the creaking stage, shoes or boots whenever Mr Sloane walks around it
would be appreciated. It's a well- directed and excellently acted
production, with some very funny lines, and is a chance to see what all
the fuss was about in the West End almost 50 years ago. To 27-10-12. Roger Clarke |
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