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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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Practising safe, No Sex No Sex Please, We're British Highbury Theatre Centre
IT SEEMS we have come a long way since
the Obscene Publications act of 1959 and rightly or wrongly have now
allowed a society where these issues are both common knowledge and
accepted. When
No Sex Please We‘re British
was written by Anthony Marriott and Alistair Foote in 1971, the subject
was still a hotbed of international court action. However looking back
the 42 years since, the embarrassment and legality of being in
possession of some ` naughty publications' no longer quite has the edge
it once might have had. It was a young Michael Crawford who first
originated the lead role of Brian Runnicales with many commenting since
that that was the birth of Frank Spencer, later to be seen in the TV
series Some Mothers Do ‘Av Em. The plot is centred on newlyweds Peter and
Frances Hunter who live above a high-street bank. Peter is an employee
and Frances, in the hope of starting a small business, orders some
glassware from a Scandinavian mail order company. Instead of glassware
though a package of adult photos arrives, the first of several awkward
deliveries. The principal action then becomes the hiding and
disposal of the items, which as the location is a flat above a bank,
creates an amusing set of logistical difficulties. Dan Payne and Daisy Hale do a nice job as Mr &
Mrs Hunter, effectively knitting together the developing chaos of a flat
filled with unwanted guests while they and Brian Runnicales, a bank
cashier played by Richard Cogzell, do their best to lose the offensive
material. Overall Cogzell was the only one who effectively
kept up the level of absurdity and panic sufficiently to sell the 70's
notion that porn was at that time still an under the counter and illicit
affair.
It is our acceptance of such things that perhaps
made the production a little too comfortable for the players to rise to
and only occasionally did it generate the panic that being publically
caught with a smutty novel would once have had. This production is directed by both Sandra Hayes
and Robert Hicks giving Mr Hicks his debut experience in the director's
chair and jointly they kept things moving nicely. This committee
approach may though have contributed to the lack of fire in the
proceedings although the combinations of entrances, doorbells, doors
were all timed to perfection by the supporting cast.
`No Sex' is a gentle beginning to Highbury's
season and the play traditionally is something of a stock item for
amateur companies. However after all of this time it is also something
of a time capsule and now rather dated. At one point someone called `
Danny la Rue' is mentioned? This means that besides the situation
lacking modern credibility, that a fair amount of the humour now falls
by the wayside and it must soon be time to have `No Sex' safely behind
closed doors. However if it's a nostalgic look at the end of
the sixties, our legacy of Victorian thinking with a few good laughs
thrown in, then it's still one for you. Jeff Grant |
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