Anne Boleyn

by Howard Brenton; dir Jane Railton
Criterion Theatre, Earlsdon, Coventry
11 – 18 May 2013

Anne Boleyn is a name known to us all, even if most of us know little of the details. She was at the centre of a major upheaval as Henry VIII sought to defy the church, which stood in the way of his divorce, by basically becoming the church himself. It was a time of plots and machinations when it was a triumph to ‘keep your head while all around are losing theirs’. Anne failed in this endeavour at the next shift in intrigue and in Henry’s affections.

So, how does a play capture all this without becoming a dull historical and political pageant? Surprisingly well as it turns out. The play is set in two time periods – during Anne’s time itself and also 6 decades later with the Scottish James I newly arrived from Scotland to take the combined English/Scottish throne.

We begin with Anne addressing the audience and enlisting them to view the story with her. Nicol Cortese’s portrayal of Anne was full of such youthful vivacity and charm that it was evident she could twist a lusty but frustrated Henry (excellently played by Craig Shelton) around her little finger in order to secure the marriage bed rather than that of the concubine.

Anne plays a dangerous game, consorting with the heretic protestant William Tyndale (nicely done by Mark Wiszowaty), reading his outlawed books and even standing up to the dangerous Cardinal Wolsey (Hugh Sorrill, who seemed made for the part). On her side were that these writings were the key that would allow Henry to break with Rome and that Thomas Crowell (Brian Emeney), arguably the most powerful man at court, was also a protestant supporter.

The speech is modern, allowing easy access for a modern audience, and there is much humour in the telling. Much of the latter was reserved for the James I scenes, which formed a light-relief counterpoint to the deadly time of Henry. If there is a stand-out among the many top-notch performances here, it is Jon Elves as James. Playing him as an outrageous libertine with tourettes (of the twitchy variety rather than rude) he was a delight to watch. He was ably backed up by court official Robert Cecil, played with a masterful comic touch by Keith Railton, and courtier George Villiers, the object of James’ amorous attentions, well played by Joe Fallowell.

Most of the rest of the cast performed a solid supporting role, although there were some weak points. In the religious debates in James’ court, some of the antics of the supporters in their ludicrous false beards distracted from, rather than adding to the main activity. And in the scenes with Tyndale’s supporters, characters had a habit of stepping forward to speak and then hovering backwards into line again. It feels that not enough time was being spent by the director with the supporting cast and it took some of the shine off and almost reduced the rating to four stars.

A delightfully entertaining evening out and a demonstration that even a large cast can excel (mostly). I even learnt a lot about the whole story of Anne Boleyn.

Inkblot

Fawlty Towers

by John Cleese & Connie Booth; dir Wendy Anderson
Talisman Theatre, Kenilworth
15 – 20 April 2013

It’s a great formula. Find a hugely popular TV series of thirty or forty years ago, collect a bunch of actors who look something like the originals and get them to do an impression. Here we have three half hour episodes which few will not have seen at some time or other. Not any real acting involved, of course, but a promise of an evening of entertainment.

There are three well remembered characters from the original where some physical similarity is essential. Bill Davis seems about seven foot tall and has a manic instinct hard-wired into his DNA – Basil sorted.  David Draper, short, confused, improbably dark-haired and sporting the sort of moustache that wowed them in the aisles when Hitler was on the comedy circuit in the 30s is a recognisable Manuel. Most successfully recreated is Sybil. Jill Laurie not only has the hair and voice pretty well nailed, but also has a repertoire of mood, stance and movement that does full justice to the original.

Elsewhere there are moments to enjoy.  Miss Tibbs (Maureen Jones) and Miss Gatsby (Cynthia Anderson) have little enough to do, but make each second precious. Damian Storey offers three well defined ‘likely lads’ and John Fenner’s  crooked Lord Melbury was significant in making the first of the three plays the best.

Plenty of promise then, pity about the delivery. The evening simply became less funny once we had got over the pleasure of the identity parade. Basil never quite had the short fuse and danger of imminent explosion that John Cleese gave us. Some comic moments failed to deliver because of lack of clarity or precision in the timing. Some gags were so deliberately contrived that any pleasure in their realisation had gone. Where was the desperate invention to cover moments of potential embarrassment? Why was there not a gathering urgency as the story developed and became more improbable? The cast were clearly capable of meeting those demands and it can only be assumed that actors were left to ‘sort it out’ by themselves. Authoritative, competent, diagnostic direction would have made a real difference and, sadly, this can only be assumed to have been lacking.

If we are to make a judgement on the size of house then this has done well. Certainly the night that I was in, the theatre was close to full. Nevertheless I feel that I must be guided by the fact that laughs became fewer and less enthusiastic as the evening wore on. Relief that there was not to be a fourth episode was palpable.

In offering three stars I am steering a route between The Scylla of misplaced enthusiasm and The Charybdis of easy disdain for this theatre overtly aiming for the popular.

Dombey & Son

Another view

Fawlty Towers is one of the best loved and most timeless of British TV sit-coms. There must be few people in this country who have not seen at least once all twelve episodes that were made. The modern availability of TV programmes via the internet also means that a reproduction on stage cannot be with the aim of reviving a lost classic. Instead it forms an opportunity for us to indulge with an old favourite. There is little room for innovation here; depart far from the TV episodes in characterisations and the audience are likely to be disappointed.

So what are the chances of substituting for actors like John Cleese and Prunella Scales? Well, this production does surprisingly well in the face of this daunting task, helped undoubtedly by some of those key characters having already played the same roles when The Talisman previously performed three other episodes from the series. Bill Davis does a remarkably good job of reproducing Basil Fawlty’s speech , mannerisms and expressions, although was a bit weaker in the manic moments and this did feel frustrating as time went on. Jill Laurie as Sybil Fawlty was also a good counterfeit and carried off her officiousness with ease, and her strident call of ‘Basil!’ and braying laugh were both very effective. Of the other ‘regulars’, David Draper’s Manuel and Tim Eden’s Terry reminded me most of their TV counterparts.

Three episodes were performed here, with intervals between, and there was freedom for a bit of interpretation of the ‘guest’ characters. In ‘A Touch of Class’, a con man under the guise of Lord Melbury (played with a suitable air of haughtiness by John Fenner), exploits Basil’s snobbishness in an attempt to con him out of money and valuables. In ‘The Hotel Inspectors’, an obnoxious spoon salesman (played by a suitably pompous Colin Ritchie) is mistaken for a hotel inspector by Basil. And in ‘Basil The Rat’, Manuel’s ‘hamster’ (played by one or more enormous glove puppets) goes on the rampage during a council food and health inspection.

All in all an enjoyable evening if you are happy to get into the spirit of the thing and accept that it won’t necessarily match the original.

Hari Kitson

Entertaining Mr Sloane

by Joe Orton; dir Tim Willis
Loft Theatre, Leamington Spa
3 – 13 April 2013

Entertaining Mr Sloane was first performed nearly fifty years ago as the first stage play in Joe Orton’s tragically cut-short time as a playwright. Orton delighted in shocking his audiences, especially in connection with homosexuality which was still illegal in those unenlightened days.

Sloane, who unlike the older characters is never referred to by first name, is an amoral young man who becomes a lodger at the home of middle-aged Kath and her ‘Dadda’, Kemp. He rapidly manipulates his sexual attraction to Kath and to her brother, Ed, to ensure he has a comfortable time. And he bullies Kemp, who recognises him as a murderer, into submission. Kath and Ed tussle over the rights to Sloane’s sexual attentions and, thanks to a further ‘impropriety’ by Sloane, come to a solution that satisfies them both thanks to a little blackmail and demonstrates that we can all partake of a bit of amorality if it suits us.

What was designed to shock audiences back in the sixties hardly raises an eyebrow nowadays, so its main attraction other than for nostalgic purposes seems to be the story of manipulation and moral convenience. Unfortunately to my mind, the play seemed to be presented much in the style of a ‘Confessions of a …’ film.

Most of the parts were considerably over-acted, notably Sloane (Chris Gilbey-Smith) who also suffered from the problem of being a little too old to carry off the fresh-faced appeal that the twenty-year-old Sloane would have benefitted from – an oddity considering the wealth of young talent the Loft has at its disposal. It was hard to picture Kath as being twice his age. Kath (Kate Sawyer) also suffered somewhat from over-acting and being too much aroused by Sloane from the start, rather than letting us see this build towards the climax of the first act. We could see where this was heading from the start and began to wonder why it took so long. Again, Kemp (Neil Vallance), was an over-acted caricature, a sort of one-dimensional Steptoe whose attempts at replicating the movements of a feeble old man were not at all convincing. I don’t blame the actors much for all this as the over-acting was so rife that it must have been what director Tim Willis was looking for. I just wonder why.

The one character I have not mentioned so far was refreshingly different. Ed (Howard Scott-Walker) I think achieved the right balance of risqué and realistic and, as such, came over as a much better and more amusing character whose actions arose as a natural consequence of his character rather than appearing forced and gave much more credibility to his solution at the end.

Altogether, if you can suspend not so much disbelief as incredulity, the play is still an enjoyable romp and there is humour to be had in the way things conclude.

Millicent Short

God of Carnage

by Yasmina Reza; dir Helen Withers
Criterion Theatre, Earlsdon, Coventry
23 – 30 March 2013

God of Carnage is a play by Yasmina Reza about two couples, one of whose child has hurt the other at a public park, who meet to discuss the matter in a civilized manner. As the play unfolds we learn that kids will be kids, but when two sets of parents get together it can become absolute carnage.

The play was a success in its original French, and whilst it has been widely acclaimed as an English-translated production, I wasn’t enamoured of it. I just didn’t quite see why it was funny, and I’m not entirely convinced the cast did either. That’s not to say it isn’t worth watching, and whilst I didn’t like the script or perhaps the translation, my opinion of the production itself was mainly positive.

All four performances were strong considering what they had to work with and I particularly enjoyed Trev Clarke’s hamster rant (this bit was funny; I’d recommend going for this alone) and Annie Gay’s projectile vomit stunt, and Cathryn Bowler’s performance of a woman quickly descending from the high-brow heights of common decency into a rum-drinking, potty-mouthed woman on the edge is also pretty funny and performed very well. Jon Elves was convincing as a parent who had something far better to do than stay analysing the behaviour of his child Ferdinand, but I’m not sure if that was him in character or the actor’s true feelings coming through.

A rather large gripe of mine, hinted at above, was the translation, which I found rather odd. I don’t know if this was the theatre’s interpretation or was as written, but if you want an audience to believe and be taken in by what they’re watching then you have to make it make sense! Bruno and Ferdinand are French names (beautiful as they are), no modern man calls a woman “madam” anymore and (here I show my ignorance) what the hell is a Clafouti?

Overall I would say it’s worth watching. The performances were good and the set itself was beautifully designed and, if you like a bit of farce then I suggest you see it. Oh, and there’s no interval so you’re out and at the bar a lot earlier than normal – now that’s a bonus.

Marmite

Suddenly Last Summer

by Tennessee Williams; dir David Hankins
Loft Theatre, Leamington Spa
19 March – 23 March 2013

We are in the steamy, semi-tropical landscape of Louisiana.

Sebastian died last summer whilst in Europe. The circumstances of that death are unclear and this is the central theme of the play. Sebastian’s mother, Violet Venable, is convinced that her niece, Catherine Holly, who was with Sebastian at the time, carries responsibility for his death. As the play progresses it becomes apparent the Sebastian was homosexual and that both his mother and his cousin, Catherine were not above pimping for him. His mother is keen to suppress this and, to that end, is promoting Catherine as insane – even to the point of encouraging Catherine’s neurosurgeon, Dr Cukrowicz, to consider lobotomy. Ultimately the true nature of Sebastian’s death is revealed.

The first half an hour of the play is largely a monologue from Violet Venables (Sue Moore) with brief interjections from Dr Cukrowicz (Paul Atkins). The language is darkly poetic with frequent imagery of predation. A savage world is described full of unforgiving forces of nature. Sue Moore certainly gives us the hauteur of the southern aristocrat and handles the part with assurance and a rolling anger which underpins her performance. Given the length of this section a richer, more varied palette would have helped. We might have found her reflecting on past events with some sad pleasure. Also the actor’s instinct to become almost inaudible at the most introspective moments was a distraction.

The last half hour of the play very much belongs to Catherine Holly and what a brilliant, passionate feast she makes of it. She moves from defending herself, to attacking her aunt and narrating the events surrounding Sebastian’s death with great skill. Many changes of gear here and Sophie Dyke has given us a hugely effective introduction to her considerable abilities.

Paul Aitkin’s Doctor Cukrowicz is largely there to service the battle between Violet and Catherine. Nevertheless it needs a quiet authority and this performance has the right weight to provoke the explosive and revealing reactions of the two women.

The other three or four roles are very peripheral and yet, here, played well and with confidence.

Although accents are brave rather than accurate and the emotions have something of an Anglo-Saxon reserve rather than a full blown Latin expression we are given a welcome opportunity to enjoy a seldom performed piece.

Dombey & son

In Praise of Love

by Terrence Rattigan; dir John Dawson
Talisman Theatre, Kenilworth
4 – 9 March 2013

Rattigan’s plays have been largely out of favour for some time now. This is a pity, because they represent some of the best that British theatre can provide, and have great emotional depth. Every now and again we come across a revival that reminds us of what we have been missing.

In Praise of Love may not be one of his most effective pieces, and may be excessively wordy for some, but it still has the power to move and, at times, to amuse.

This production by John Dawson is largely effective if, visually, it struggles somewhat to identify its period. For the second production running the Talisman wardrobe falls short. We are supposed to be witnessing the 1970s, but what we see costume-wise is too modern and, occasionally, conflicts with the tone and the style of the piece.

If one can put this aside, however, there is much to enjoy in the performances. Linda Connor, making only her second appearance at the Talisman, gives an assured rendering of Lydia Cruttwell, the wife with a terminal diagnosis. The character has to run the gamut of emotions during the course of the play. Ms Connor achieves this with some style and succeeds with a fairly subtle central European accent (Lydia being Estonian by birth).

As her, apparently, hard-nosed husband with Communist affiliations, Andrew Bayliss gives a largely believable portrayal (especially in the latter stages) of a man shielding his true emotions from both family and friends by bluster and feigned disdain.

In the lesser roles of family friend and the Cruttwell’s Liberal supporter son, John Francis and Damian Story do well. Mr Francis is suitably relaxed and sympathetic as Mark, a pleasant change from some of his more exuberant performances, and it is good to see a young actor like Mr Story coming across strongly in a small but vital role.

Paul Chokran’s set, an adaptation from the previous production, works well.

Overall not perfect, but an enjoyable evening nonetheless, and deserves to be seen by bigger audiences than I witnessed.

Hari Kitson

Pravda

by Howard Brenton & David Hare; dir Gordon Vallins
Loft Theatre, Leamington Spa
27 February – 9 March 2013

We tend to forget how long Rupert Murdoch has dominated British media and this play, originally performed in 1985, reminds us of the impact he had, and has, on the press. Moved from Australia to South Africa and now called Lambert La Roux the protagonist infiltrates the newspaper industry of the time and turns it into a right-wing, popularist tirade.

Gordon Vallins’ satirical production gives us a collection of broadly drawn characters that, in the main, would not be out of place in a comic strip. We are offered foul-mouthed Aussie businessmen; airily disdainful Oxford graduates with double firsts in Greats; a well boozed princess close to HR; High Tory, self-serving grandees and union bosses willing to bring down the world around them.

The action is fast moving, funny and presented in a number of simple scenes efficiently morphing from location to location and supported with a telling programme of images projected onto the back wall of the stage. The stage floor is painted as giant front pages and the journalists work at newspaper covered desks. This is very much the theatre of ‘broad strokes’ rather than fine detail – more Brecht than Chekhov. There are, possibly, some inconsistencies here with some actors more inclined to naturalism than seems to be the main theme elsewhere.

David Pinner’s performance as Lambert La Roux is magnificently broad and his pivotal position at the heart of the play is assured and hugely effective at drawing the attention. Alex Comer as Andrew May, the pawn in La Roux’ game, has a less flashy role, which reminds us of the normal world which La Roux seeks to manipulate. Zoë Faithfull completes this central group as Andrew May’s wife. Sassy, feminist, opinionated and politically aware she gives us the modern woman determined to be heard. Add to this La Roux’ Aussie business manager, James Wolstenholme, who gives us a wonderful, down-to-earth colonial who sees no reason for not sharing jokes about ‘abbo’ nudists with princesses of the realm.

The remaining dozen or so actors flesh out the forty parts of the play. We see the same face popping up with a different voice and hat at points throughout the evening. This is, in the main, an effective device in itself in that it reminds us that this is theatre and we do not need to be deceived into believing that we are eavesdropping on the real world. A particular joy was the exuberant performance of the promotional jingle ‘Bingo’ towards the end of the evening.

When it works as well as, generally, it does here, there is always a particular satisfaction in pieces which put so much dependence on imaginative performance and presentation.

Two and a half hours well spent in the theatre.

squirrel

Blithe Spirit

by Noël Coward; dir Mary MacDonald
Talisman Theatre, Kenilworth
4 – 9 February 2013

A core of Coward’s plays is likely to remain with us for a while yet and this is certainly one of them. Like Wodehouse, his characters live outside the world that most of us inhabit and yet we are happy to be drawn into their domain and feel concern for their issues.

Blithe Spirit tells of the events that arise when an author, for reasons of research, brings back a dead wife from beyond the pale with the help of a local necromancer. Not surprisingly the author’s present wife and the spirit of the last one fail to become best of friends.

Coward’s characters need a deft lightness of touch and, frequently, the importance of not being earnest is a useful guiding light. Martin Eggleston’s Charles delivers this is spades as he sashays confidently around the set avoiding the worst of his two wives’ barbed attacks.

If John McCririck and Margaret Rutherford ever had a love child it could well be Chris Carpenter’s Madam Arcati who, with a manic energy, summons Elvira from the other side, then forgets how best to return her. Who doesn’t like an English eccentric, and here we have much to enjoy.

By contrast the spirit of Elvira is a self-interested, svelte, wraith the colour of a healthy herring, who mischievously does her best to make the lives of those around her increasingly stressful. Julie Godfrey drifts around the set like a leaf in the wind looking, and delivering, the goods.

Unfortunately the actor playing Ruth Condomine, Charles’ present wife, seems, strangely, to have opted for a wig that puts one in mind of Acorn Antiques. Rather than the haughty disdain that is generally Coward’s default she offers a sort of suburban irritation that belongs elsewhere. Square pegs and round holes I’m afraid.

Sarah Cullum affirms the dictum that there are no small parts but only small actors. Her Edith, the maid, appears early and each time you are left hoping for her imminent return. Undoubtedly a treasure of a treasure!

We are given a functional, acceptable set which serves the play well enough, but with two intervals the play may be slightly long for its light hearted content. Nevertheless, the director, Mary MacDonald, has given us a pleasant distraction on a winter evening.

squirrel

Another View

The success of Coward’s plays relies mainly on his wit, elegance and sophistication. In this production we get the wit but very little elegance or sophistication. As a result, although it has its moments, the evening seems over long.

In this story of the Condomines, Charles and Ruth, and the upsets to their lives resulting from the summoning of the spirit of his former wife, Elvira, Mary MacDonald’s direction, in the main, keeps the pace going nicely, despite there being several clumsy moments. But I felt a tighter rein could and should have been applied to some of the portrayals.

First, the good points. For me, performance of the evening comes from Julie Godfrey as Elvira. She captures the Coward manner perfectly. Her playing has style and is vocally excellent. Christine Carpenter does well as Madame Arcati. It’s a Margaret Rutherford take-off, whereas I would like to have seen something more original, but, in the context, it works. I began by thinking that Sarah Cullum’s maid, Edith, was going to develop into a junior Mrs Overall but, in fact, she delivers some assured moments as the performance progresses, and her appearances become a delight. In the unrewarding roles of Dr and Mrs Bradman, John Nichols and Linda Smith-Blain deliver all that is necessary.

My main problem was with the Condomines. As writer Charles, Martin Eggleston was far too frenetic from the start. As a result, his increasing frustrations with his wives really had nowhere to go and, although he moved well (apart from his increasingly irritating propping up of the mantelpiece), here was an instance of that missing sophistication.

Chris Ives acted wife Ruth well enough, but her appearance was totally wrong and blame for this must lie at the director’s door. This was where some of the elegance was missing. Ruth Condomine may be no great beauty (the script states as much), but she should be supremely elegant. Ms Ives was ill-served by both the choice of wardrobe and by the wig. None of the chosen dresses was flattering, and the red number was particularly dowdy. Such a shame.

The set was attractive and served its purpose, although I thought it was slightly over-furnished, resulting in some awkward moves, and the use of the pouffe for the séance scenes was vaguely ridiculous. Yes, I know, sight lines and all that, but still…

All in all, then, only a partially successful evening, and I don’t think the Master would have been all that thrilled.

Hari Kitson

On Your Honour

by Roger Leach & Colin Wakefield; dir Nigel Macbeth
Priory Theatre, Kenilworth
30 January – 9 February 2013

On Your Honour is a fairly stock farce with all the usual kinds of things that you would expect: sexual infidelity, surprise visits, mistaken identities, hiding in adjoining rooms, states of undress, etc. This is not a criticism; farces definitely fall into the bums-on-seats category and this is a reasonable example of the genre set among the legal fraternity.

The setting is a hotel bedroom where Nick (Alec Brown) has arrived to attend a weekend legal conference. Leaving his wife to stay at his mother’s, he has brought along his sexy young secretary, Toni (Rebecca Gardner Tildesley), for a bit of extra-marital action while he’s not in the conference rooms. Plans are initially disturbed by Hugo (Stuart Lawson) from the next room, who wants Nick’s help at the conference to impress the Lord Chancellor. The arrival of Nick’s wife, Hilary (Jo Beckett), gets the action into full swing, and there are a few others to arrive yet – many of whom are related.

The key components of presenting a farce are pace and timing and, on that score, the cast performed reasonably well for the most part. As a whole, the men did a lot better than the women, with the exception of Rebecca Gardner Tildesley as the secretary, who carried off the part to a T. The other two women were not loud or clear enough to be heard clearly and introduced many unwelcome pauses. Alec Brown and Stuart Lawson handled their parts comfortably and were generally entertaining and convincing. The caricature of the Lord Chancellor, played by Graham Shurvinton, was larger than life and certainly kept the audience amused. For me though, I think that Ben Williams particularly shone as the hotel boy, forever returning with more champagne and smoked-salmon sandwiches and pursuing his own agenda.

The biggest let-down though was the lack of discipline among the cast. Corpsing was rife and there were periods where everyone on stage appeared to be giggling (or at least clearly fighting to suppress it). While it’s important for the cast to enjoy what they are doing, they really needed to have got all this stuff out of the way in rehearsals and exercised more self-control when an audience was present – the comedy itself is heightened this way. While we are all human and an occasional lapse can be overlooked, this was getting to be endemic. Enough said.

Still, the show was entertaining and it was fun.

Millicent Short

Mindgame

by Anthony Horowitz; dir Darren Scott
Loft Theatre, Leamington Spa
23 January – 3 February 2013

Mindgame is a ‘dark psychological thriller’ adapted from the novel of the same name – by the same author. It is set in the office of the director of an asylum for the criminally insane, where crime author Styler has arrived to try to arrange a series of interviews with serial killer Easterman.

As we join the action, we find that Styler (Roger Harding) has been waiting alone in the office for the last two hours and is getting fed up. Before long, the director arrives: Dr Farquhar (pronounced Farrar) (Craig Shelton). Farquhar seems surprised by the visitor and says he has no knowledge of the previous correspondence that has taken place. He tells Styler that the interviews are out of the question and that he should leave. His demeanour and actions soon strike us as peculiar and we start to wonder if all is not as it seems. A little later, after repeated summoning on the phone, Nurse Plimpton (Ruth Herd) arrives and the oddness steps up another notch as she tries to persuade Styler to leave. Yet by this time Farquhar seems reluctant to let him do so, being fascinated in why Styler wishes to interview Easterman of all people.

In fact, very little is at it seems in this play, which is rife with deceptions and oddities and deliberately tries to confuse and mislead the audience, who are keenly trying to interpret everything. Even what you see can be misleading and keeping observant and alert is important. With the setting in mind, you would be right in suspecting that there are some disturbing and violent scenes, but there is also a dose of dark humour.

All the parts are played well, with Craig Shelton standing out as particularly effective, but I felt that it could have done with an extra degree of mania in some of the scenes to draw us into the action and bring out the scary experience that it could be. Despite the threats and acts of violence, it never quite felt that I wasn’t watching three actors.

Having said that, it was a creditable effort and good to see something out of the ordinary. An entertaining night out that will have you thinking about it for some time afterwards.

Millicent Short