|
|
|
|
|
|
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. |
|
|
Making light work of work Summer Show 2012! Moorpool Players Moorpool Hall, Harborne *** PEOPLE who find the daily grind hard to
take tend to describe work as a four-letter word. And if they are locked
in a tedious job its easy to understand them. So it was a brave decision of the players to
select work as the theme of this year's summer show, and they went to
the trouble of advising potential customers not to be put off by the
subject. Director Debbie Scattergood has written a
series of amusing sketches showing men and women at work, on computers
in offices, waiting tables in a cafe, bubbly beauticians, and lads on a
building site discussing how the wife of one had managed to find
multiple ways of making egg sandwiches. Even redundancies crop up. Members of the 13-strong cast open with
the song Nine to Five, then John Healey acted as an extremely patient
official addressing not-so-bright job applicants whose comical CVs
included such achievements as 'growing a beard' and doing a spot of
ironing in a charity shop. John appears to be addressing members of the
audience when discussing the lack of useful content in the CVs, and the
first nighters clearly found his piece very funny. Maybe they had
experienced something similar in real life. Even if one or two sketches fall a little
flat, the enthusiasm of the actors certainly rubs off on the audience. Where the show really scores high marks is in
the second act when music takes a much bigger and very welcome part in
the proceedings. It underlined that more music would have given the
production greater impact. Laura King and Dan Birch combine in a
lovely duet, Something Stupid, and Mark Scattergood put plenty of
passion into Till I Hear You Sing. And there is a big finish with the entire cast
joining in Brotherhood of Man. Good contributions, too, from Caz Alderton, Samantha Bloxham, Charlotte Chapman, Trisha Martin, Andrew Miles, Melissa Millard, Marguerite Morris, Debbie Scattergood and Emma Suffield.
Clearly a great deal of hard work has gone into staging this home made
production. To: 07.07.12. Paul Marston |
|
|
|