Photos

Photos: Peter Whittle

In Rehearsal

Cast

Croydon Advertiser Review

Peter Steptoe

Having seen Yasmin Reza’s witty play ‘Art’, professionally performed, at The Churchill Theatre, I looked forward to this one with eager anticipation. Unfortunately an opinion of a play is nearly always formed by the first performance seen and I was disappointed.

Yes, it was a clever idea to show how easily an outcome was liable to random change by variations in attitude of the participants. Here a professional middle class couple forgot that his astrophysicist boss and his wife were coming to dinner. They had little food and their offstage son would not shut up and go to sleep.

The play was described as witty and there were perhaps four laughs during the evening, the loudest coming from the message sent in by the child that he could not sleep because they were making too much noise. Admittedly it was the first night, some word uncertainty and perhaps the sparse audience was the non laughing sort.

The first act concerned Henri the doting father and researcher at the institute who had not published for three years. His wife, a lawyer, was too busy to comfort the child; the boss Hubert had sadistic tendencies and his vain self opinionated wife thought a laddered stocking was the end of the world. The trouble was that with so few redeeming qualities it was difficult to be interested in their concerns.

Steve Boxall as Henri the doting father gave a competent performance and we got to like him better when he stopped being oleaginous.

Sonia (Tonia Porter) his wife was the acerbic mother, whose exits ands entrances were made with the speed of light but she had a tendency to spend time in the upper vocal register when stressed or sarcastic, which in act one was quite often.

Graham Jones, as Hubert the sadistic boss, must have acted very well because I looked upon him as a veritable slime-ball with no redeeming qualities; justified, because in subsequent acts he turned out to be a womaniser.

Claire Connery played Ines, Hubert’s wife and from self opinionated became quite loveable, the more so when inebriated.

Josh Woodward as the unseen voice of child Arnaud had the coarse actors’ perfect part with no words to learn and I congratulate him on his efficaciousness.

The pace was good, the set adequate, the lighting effective and Director Nikki Packham knew what she was about.