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Showbiz
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HUMBLE BOY SOUTHPORT DRAMATIC
CLUB LITTLE THEATRE
Review by Champion Arts Editor
RON ELLIS
This play reminded me of Abagail’s Party, one
of the most popular plays of last season’s programme. Basically
it is about the relationships of a dysfunctional family and,
although the storyline has been compared to Hamlet, I would
describe it more as ‘Shameless’ for the middle classes.
The humble boy is Felix Humble (Stephen Hughes-Alty
is as convincing as he is in every role he plays) who we are
told is a research fellow in astrophysics yet is a stuttering
Mummy’s boy who makes Michael Crawford’s portrayal of Frank
in ‘Some mothers do ‘ave em’ look more macho than John Wayne.
Poppy Flanagan is Flora Humble, The Mother from
Hell. When she first appears on stage, standing rigidly in
the doorway wearing a giant pair of shades, she looks more
like an alien than the Playboy bunny she was supposed to have
once been.
The plot hinges round the recent death of her
quiet husband, James, whose hobby was bee-keeping. It is the
day of his funeral and who should turn up at the house after
the sad event but her ‘friend’, George Pye, a rumbustuous
businessman (Tom Hornby with a nice line in leers). It transpires
she has been having it away with George for years.
To complicate things, George’s daughter, Rosie
(a feisty performance by Michelle Pappini), was once Felix’s
girl friend and she now tells him that he is the father of
her seven-year-old daughter, something she had neglected to
inform him of earlier. She then starts to rip off his clothes
and ravish him for old times sake.
In the middle of all this mayhem is Mercy, the
kindly neighbourhood spinster who has devoted her life to
being Flora’s lapdog. Trudi Hirsch has the best lines as Mercy
and was rewarded with spontaneous applause from the audience
after her hilarious rendition of grace before the family meal.
The final part went to Mike Stowell as Jim
the Gardener whose only reason for being there at all is that
he turns out to be the spirit of the late lamented James.
It may sound confusing, and there are a few long passages
about bees and astrophysics that could have been slept through,
but there are also some very funny moments (James’s ashes
mistakenly sprinkled on the tomato soup) and some great one-liners
(‘If Mme Curie were alive today, she’d use her Bunsen Burner
to make Crème Brulee’)’
There is also a certain poignancy about the
relationships when the hyperbole is ignored. Flora only needs
George while James is alive because, she explains to him,
the dynamic only works when there are three in the relationship.
Not good news for Camilla!
‘Humble Boy’ is a thoughtful, well-constructed
play, which has won several major awards. It is well worth
seeing and all praise to the SDC for tackling it and doing
it so well. . . Star Rating 7 out of 10.
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SOUTHPORT DRAMATIC CLUB
LITTLE THEATRE
GAME PLAN by SIR ALAN AYCKBOURN REVIEW
BY RON ELLIS
The play divides into six scenes. After a slow start, the
second and third scenes leading up to the interval are hilariously
funny but everything afterwards becomes ridiculous and tedious.
Scene one has Sorrell (16) arguing with her mother (a harassed
Diane Mackley) who has lost her income and smokes incessantly.
Too long and too much bickering but then comes scene two.
Enter Sorrell's doting friend Kelly who is shocked when
Sorrell tells her she is going to advertise her sexual services
on the Internet and wants Kelly to assist her. Nice lines
and good acting from Emelia Scott as Sorrell, the bolshie
teenager you wish had left home at 12, and Natasha Proffit,
who displayed wonderful facial expressions as the wimpish
Kelly.
Kitted out in basque and dominatrix boots, Sorrell awaits
her first client and the play really comes to life when
the outstanding Ted Bullen arrives as Leo, the meek middle-aged
widower, more interested in a cup of tea and someone to
talk to than an afternoon of unbridled lust. The best moment
of the play came when Kelly, anxious to get him in the bedroom,
hands him a box of condoms and he waves them away thinking
she is offering him a biscuit with his tea.
At this point, the audience broke into spontaneous applause.
The actors' timing was perfect. And the look on Ted Bullen's
face when he finally is coerced into the bedroom and Kelly
optimistically hands him no less than five condoms is pure
theatrical magic. Obviously, the subsequent effort is too
much for Leo whose heart can't take it and he expires on
the carpet. Great comedy.
Unfortunately, the play doesn't end there and it badly
loses its way in the second half, undecided whether it is
still a comedy or turning into a murder mystery. The girls
dump Leo in the river and the law turns up a fortnight later.
Brendan Gillow and Cate Leight are caricatures of police
officers with Cate quoting the Bible at every turn, an artificial
device that has no purpose and is simply not funny.
By the time Eric Chadwick turns up as a tabloid reporter,
the plot has lost all relevance and the whole thing degenerates
into a farce with a bewilderingly inconclusive ending. Blame
the playwright. This is Ayckbourn in his dotage rather than
his prime.
My advice? Stay in the bar after the interval and have
another drink. It was still worth the admission money for
those two classic scenes.
STAR RATING: 6 out of 10. Gold amidst the dross.
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Les Miserables
SDC Youth Theatre Little Theatre
Review by Ellen Campbell
This show made for a memorable evening at the
Little Theatre with the SDC Youth Theatre putting on a spectacular
performance of the School Edition of Les Miserables that would
have graced any West End theatre. There can have been very
few productions as good as this in the theatre’s history and
the standing ovations at the end of every sell-out show said
it all. Encouraging, too, to see so many young faces in the
audience. Hopefully they will continue to return to see future
productions.
Les Miserables is an emotionally draining show,
evaluating moral codes of conduct and showing the futility
of war. Hardly themes to encourage a feel-good factor. Its
real strength is in the powerful songs. Numbers like ‘Bring
him home’ and ‘Empty chairs and empty tables’ convey the strong
emotions of love and the closeness of life and death whilst
‘Master of the House’ brings some welcome humour to the proceedings.
Christopher Rimmer as Jean Valijean gave a superb
performance, taking the audience with him from his life in
prison, for stealing bread to save his sister’s starving child,
to re-assessing his life and devoting it to doing good. His
rendition of ‘Who am I?’ was out of this world. Anthony Orme
made a totally convincing Javert, the determined inspector
who relentlessly seeks Valijean out after breaking his parole
to start afresh.
Alice Flynn played Fantine, the melancholy mother
who dies leaving her daughter Cossette to be rescued and brought
up by Valijean. Cossette, the younger played by Chloe Morris
with Florence King as the elder, falls in love with Marius,
ably portrayed by Matthew Greenwood. Marius is already in
a relationship with Eponine, played by Jessica Wall, with
Helena Fletcher-Hill as her younger self. But Eponine dies
by a bullet meant for Marius. The comedy of the night came
from James Loughlin and Francesca Rimmer who gave brilliant
performances as M and Mme Thenardier, especially in the comic
wedding scene in the second half.
All the principals had strong and beautiful
voices although to single them out alone would be an injustice
as every person on the stage gave an outstanding performance.
It is a show which lends itself to the choral performers by
giving them wonderful songs to sing like the popular ‘Do you
hear the people sing?’
All credit to the Director of this show, the
talented Stephen Hughes-Alty, (who should be following in
the steps of the SDC President, Ian Judge, to national fame)
and Musical Director, Paul Williams, who must have worked
tirelessly with the performers to produce such a high standard.
The only drawback to the evening was the oppressive heat in
the auditorium which at times made me think I was watching
The Desert Song.
Sept 22nd 2010
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'AN IDEAL HUSBAND' by OSCAR WILDE
SOUTHPORT DRAMATIC CLUB
LITTLE THEATRE
REVIEW BY RON ELLIS
An Oscar Wilde play is always a delight but in the modern
world of sound bites, when TV viewers are accustomed to
scenes being broken up into fast changing segments, the
action can seem a trifle pedestrian and wordy, especially
when performed onstage without the benefit of close ups
or attractive outdoor scenery to accelerate the action.
The plot could easily be used as a modern day thriller
in the 'House of Cards' vein, where a rising politician
is faced with blackmail when a woman confronts him with
evidence of his insider dealing as a young man, which led
to his fortune. Now, unless he is prepared to back a fraudulent
scheme that he has previously denounced, she will expose
and ruin him.
Unfortunately, there are not many actors in the style of
Wilfred Hyde-White or Rex Harrison these days and casting
directors have to make do with what is available. Although
they played their parts admirably, Alistair Hewitt did not
carry the aristocratic bearing required for the part of
Sir Robert Chiltern and Adrian Roberts is too much a man
of the world to convince as the narcissistic dandy Lord
Goring. Jon Russell fared better as Vicomte de Nanjac, managing
to look and sound suitably French.
The ladies fared batter. Helen Bennett had the shrewishness
required for the part of the priggish Lady Chiltern; Margaret
Mann could have walked out of the pages of Debrett as Lady
Markby and Helene Porter played Mabel Chiltern with a natural
serenity. Sandra Unsworth certainly looked the part of the
glamorous Mrs Cheveley but without managing to convey any
of the menace behind the seductive smile.
Things livened up after the interval as Ray Mann as the
blustering old buffer, Lord Caversham, the limp moustache
hanging precariously from his nostrils overshadowed by his
luxuriant sidewhiskers, and David Charters with a delightful
cameo as Phipps the butler, decided to go for all out comedy
which brought relieved laughs from the audience.
The costumes looked stylish and the sets were impressive,
albeit furnished a little too minimilist for Victorian times.
Wilde's dialogue remained as sparkling as ever and, in the
end, the dialogue carried the day. STAR RATING 7 out of
10. A pleasing start to the season.
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SALT OF THE EARTH by JOHN GODBER
PRESTON DRAMA CLUB
PRESTON PLAYHOUSE
REVIEW by RON ELLIS
The play takes us through the lives of two sisters, Annie
and May, in a Yorkshire mining village from the 1950's through
to the Miners Strike in the 1980's and beyond. As teenagers,
the girls fall in love and marry two young miners, Harry
and Roy, who work down the mine but Roy is killed in a pit
accident and Annie becomes a bitter widow.
Nikki Brailsford and Christine Odlum made the difficult
transition from teenagers to pensioners frighteningly realistic,
both in appearance and actions. Steve Rybowski was a jovial
Roy before he was crushed to death and Dave Kent was perfect
as Harry, bound by the confines of his working class life.
Tom Leach was convincing as their shy son, Paul who returns
from University to find he no longer belongs in their world,
especially wearing those bright yellow trousers. With the
mine closing, his erstwhile best friend, the gormless Tosh
(Morgan McBride), has been made redundant whilst his childhood
sweetheart, Kay, is now married with two kids although not
averse to a spot of horizontal jogging with him for old
times' sake in the back of his car.
The play captured the close knit ethos of a mining community
whose way of life was soon to be destroyed for ever and.
the evening was enhanced by the playing of 1950's songs
as a background to the action. The dialogue so natural that
if John Godber ever wanted a change from writing plays (he
is the third most performed playwright in England after
Shakespeare and Ayckbourn) he would be a shoe-in as scriptwriter
for The Royle Family.
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