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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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A dream of Manderley
Newlyweds: The new Mrs de Winter (Rachel Lawrence) and her husband Maxim (Martin Copland-Gray) Rebecca The Nonentities Rose Theatre, Kidderminster **** THE magnificent set on which the first-night curtains opened boded well for what was to follow, and its forecast did not let us down – apart, ironically enough, from the incredibly tentative dusting that the banisters were almost immediately given by two of the housemaids of Daphne du Maurier's Manderley as they fluttered at the top of the impressive staircase. This was indeed the moment of the lack-lustre
dusters. After which – no complaints, apart from that door
into the conservatory which never seemed to want to shut and a telephone
with a ring so feeble that it should have defied anyone not in
Manderley's main hall to hear it. Fortunately, David Wakeman's production has no
difficulty in rising above such trifles. It exudes confidence. It hits
its peaks with precision. It is full of individual excellence. Jen
Eglinton's Mrs Danvers is ice in black. She comes frost-wrapped and
smile-free. She is authoritative and ominous. She is the immediate
unpleasant welcome for the new Mrs De Winter, the bride who is replacing
the predecessor to whom she was devoted and who has met an untimely end.
This is a performance heavy with unspecified threat, guaranteed to
inspire unease. It offers excellence in irresistible seat-squirming. As her unfortunate target, Rachel Lawrence moves
believably from shyness and timidity to belated confidence and
authority, while her husband Maxim (Martin Copland-Gray) offers
supportive strength – and is particularly impressive in his revelatory
and lengthy opening to Act 2 as he throws short, clipped sentences into
the melting-pot.
Ross Workman gives Frank Crawley, the estate
manager, the sort of happy face that is a pleasure to see among the
weighty matters which are generally in evidence and which come to a head
in the guise of the ne'er-do-well Jack Favell (Tom Rees) – who brings a
declamatory and memorable decisiveness which ensures that nobody is
going to slide into the sort of torpor that can be induced if an evening
is overfilled with too-even utterance. Not that this is a trap
into which the production shows any indication of sliding. Stephen Downing is a suitably ponderous chief
constable and it is quite a relief to hear him say, “We really ought to
carry on with this conversation elsewhere” – because Trevor Bailey is
Tabb, the groundsman and gardener who has been subjected to a quizzing
that would have been more in place at an inquest. Stuart Woodroffe and Sandy Tudor are Giles and
Beatrice Lacy, the couple who arrive amusingly early on to give us the
flavour of the fancy-dress ball that has preceded our own arrival at the
gates of Manderley. Among the comings and goings, Dennis Beasley
maintains an unshaken sang froid as Frith the butler. It is an excellent
evening. John Slim |
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