It Could Be Any One Of Us, The New Venture Players, Brentwood Theatre, Essex

Alan Ayckbourn's 1980s "comedy thriller" is set in a rotting country pile where the only person in the family with any money is composer Mortimer Chalke. The programme even has a couple of pages devoted to the score of his latest work Parametric Revelations. Plus his "explanation" of what the work is about. Sample quote "My new piece mirrors life in all its manifestations. It is based around the parameters of the 12-tone system; as the parameters continue to combine, collide, reverse and shift...". Having seen the production of this play that was unknown to me, I should think it was a pretty good description of the plot.
Formerly the Timothy White and Taylor's Young Composer of the Year 1966, Mortimer the melodramatic musician played by David Pitchford, having inherited all of his parent's money and estate despite having other siblings, rules the house with a rod of temperamental iron.
Directed by Joan Scarsbrook-Bird, the action takes place on a very solid set occupying the whole width of the theatre's acting area. Well furnished with old furniture and knickknacks, it was comfy with lots of lamps. 
Opening with Mortimer "playing" his piano work with loads of those agonised expressions many people think all pianists use when performing in public. Boredom reigns among his listening, quarrelsome relations. Apart from bolshie teenager Amy played effectively by Candy Lillywhite-Taylor complete with headphones. Headphones? In 1983? Mind you she did do some very useful crying later on.
Mortimer's brother Brinton, an angry artist played by Barry Howlett, who's absolutely at loggerheads with him; they rowed continually about repairs to the house and Mortimer's meanness with money.
Also involved in the mayhem were Janet Oliver as Jocelyn a would-be writer, James Biddles as Norris a claims investigator who fancies himself as a detective yet is unable to solve a crime and Vikki Luck as Wendy, a face from the past.  
Misunderstandings galore, some accidental, some deliberate including the attempted murder could have done with more pace and energy instead of patchiness
It puzzled me that in a play with so much emphasis on music why the director didn't use music to cover the sometimes rather lengthy scene changes, but the sound effects especially of the thunder were great.
It did strike me that maybe this play was Ayckbourn's idea of a theatrical joke.
Mary Redman
4 April 2015 

The Ladykillers, Latchingdon Arts and Drama Society, The Tractor Shed Theatre, London Hayes Farm, Latchingdon

As genial Joe Gargery writes to Pip in Great Expectations, "What larx" would sum up completely this classic Ealing Comedy of 1955 in my opinion. Originally starring a cast including the sombre Herbert Lom, it took us inside an incompetent criminal gang foiled by a very old but shrewd lady and her parrot.

In this production directed by Carole Hart, General Gordon the obstreperous parrot was never seen but thanks to Jacob Tonbridge made his voice heard on cue, on many occasions.

The set was astonishing as it so often is with LADS. Multilayered and stuffed to the rafters with old bricabrac, it included landlady Mrs Wiberforce's apartment complete with sink, cooker, sofa and entrance door on the ground floor, with stairs leading up to the small but perfectly formed bedsitter including a shower room on the first floor. This is where all the criminal plotting took place under the guise of posing as a rehearsing string quartet with music thanks to a Dansette record player. The set even revolved when someone went out of the window so we could see the roof outside.

This version was created  for the stage by Graham Linehan from the original film script by the very gifted William Rose, whose film successes included the wonderful Genevieve, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner and It's A Mad, Mad World and many others.

The script included some gems from the past which modern, younger audiences would just not understand - "Press Button A" on a public telephone was obligatory once you had been connected which then allowed you to speak.

The action started with the friendly but a bit dim local copper played by David Hudson checking on Joan Cooper's marvellous creation of the landlady. Dignified, beautifully spoken and fiercely sure of herself and what she thought was right.

Into her life came the oligeanaceous "Professor" Marcus with his scarf trailing even further than a Doctor Who. Daniel Tonbridge appeared at ease on stage in this role in which his character was the brains of the outfit and knew exactly the answers their landlady required. Until things began to fall apart that is.

His handpicked gang consisted of some of the London underworld's most prized specimens but action was their forte, rather than thinking. Robin Warnes was ideal as Major Courtney whose stutter didn't help him. He was the victim of the running joke with the portrait on the wall constantly changing position. This was just one of the small visual jokes that enlivened the production.

Harry Robinson the Teddy Boy was a very effective and assured performance from Adam Hart. Keith Spence was the rough, tough One Round Lawson. Whether that was one round of drinks or one round of bullets was left to the imagination.  Alan Elkins's Louis Harvey gave us his mad Romanian accent.

The criminals plan was to steal a large sum of money and drop it out of the bedsit window onto a goods train going North situated as the house was over the mainline railway out of London. Into their plotting came a visit from Gill Bridle's Mrs Tromleyton and her troupe of Friends costumed eccentrically by Cath Lang and Judy Embling. Played with gusto by Cathy Hallam, Mandi Tickner, Angela Gardner, Sharon Lindsell, and Chris Bird.

All in all it was a well thought out production with excellent picking up of sound cues, even train smoke coming through the window. Period detail was spot on which was an added delight. The sheer idiocy of the plot included the line "being fooled by art is one of the pleasures of the middle classes" after the quartet conducted by the Professor had entertained the visiting ladies.

Although it could have done with more pace and plenty more projection for audibility, for me it was an evening of pure nostalgia, glee and giggles.

Mary Redman

April 4 2015

Chelmsford Ballet Company, Pineapple Poll and Carnival Of The Animals, Civic Theatre, Chelmsford March 18-21 2015

As a veteran of many delightful and entertaining productions by this amateur company with professional guest artistes, their annual shows are events that I look forward to with enormous anticipation.
Regular audience members always appreciate the elegant and disciplined professional presentation of the dancers of all ages, with not a hair out of place and freshly designed costumes made by the loyal in-house team of parents and supporters led by Ann Starling.
This year's choice of was a double bill of John Cranko's now vintage ballet Pineapple Poll which was originally arranged and conducted by Charles Mackerras. 
Based on Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore it is a thoroughly jolly entertainment about a team of young ladies who disguise themselves as sailors in order to follow the men of the ship when it sails. Much confusion follows but the ending is a very happily romantic one.
Choreographer Annette Potter tweaked Cranko's original to suit the varying ages and capabilities of the company. Scarlet Mann was an extremely flirtatious and fiery Poll with guest artiste Stephen Quildan as Jasper the Potboy determined not to take no for an answer from her. Together with Megan Mclatchie's elegant Blanche, Company Chairperson Marion Pettet as a constantly bustling around chaperone Mrs Dimple, and Andrew Potter as the bluff, self-admiring Captain Belaye, everyone was smartly and colourfully costumed, exuding an air of joyousness.
The jolly music was a bit too loud at first, especially for the two-week-old brother of one of the cast who was in the audience at the start.
Then came the first big surprise of the evening. Christopher Marney, choreographer, dancer with Matthew Bourne's companies, and Patron of the Company, had created for the company his own distinctive and witty ballet Carnival Of The Animals. Set to music by Camille Saint-Saens, Francis Poulenc's Rag and Mazurka from Les Biches and Johann Strauss II's The Blue Danube this was an exuberant and ebullient piece of entertainment, beautifully danced by the company and guests.
Set in a 1930s London Theatre we were entertained by what was to me a totally new side of Marion Pettet's acting and dancing. She was the very elegant and extremely demanding socialite mother of guest artiste Jasmine Wallis's Girl who wanted to dance in a modern fashion, but Pettet's mime was absolutely clear in its intentions to remain unmoved by this. Her graceful performance was underlined by a polished and very precise technique.
As the moderniser, whose head is turned by Stephen Quildan's factotum and stage hand, Central School of Ballet's Jasmine Wallis's lively and expressive  performance was a delight from start to finish. This ballet also gave Stephen Quildan opportunities to show off his strength and great capacity for acting as well as some amazing aerial performing.
This ballet with its very French atmosphere and look, really suited them all while Chris's great jokes delighted the audience. The scenery was classically simple, including some real trees which showed off the brilliant costuming including Autumn leaf-shaped and seasonal-coloured tutus plus some delicious white dresses.
Follow CBC at www.THECHELMSFORDBALLETCOMPANY.CO.UK
Mary Redman 31.3 2015
  

A Murder Is Announced, The Guildonian Players, The Little Theatre, Harold Wood

Agatha Christie's who-dun-it adapted for the stage by Leslie Darbon followed the usual pattern for this writer by filling the hall and making me wonder yet again why and how she still manages to do this.

The mystery is intriguing but the style of writing is so laden with old fashioned ideas and morals, that you would think that the audience would get fed up to the back teeth. Not so with this production because the Guildonians have many years of practice and when the denouement came it was both a shock, and an oh, of course it was so and so!

Thanks to her years of experience Susie Faulkner as the leading lady was completely at home with the role of the genteel Miss Letitia Blacklock introduced to the accompanying sound of gentle piano music on the wireless.

Christie's plays are ideal for a group that wants to use a large cast. A round dozen in this case.

Among the most notable were Margaret Corry's dear, demented Bunny; Emma Stacey's angry foreign cook who had some of the best lines; and Tony Szalai's Inspector Craddock who took charge of events following the murder.

It was strange that in this tale Carole Brand's Miss Marple was so comparatively quiet and subdued even though she did manage to solve some of the clues.

Some of the minor characters had a few quirks such as every time Ian Russell appeared as June Fitzgerald's mother-pecked Edmund he bounded on stage, crashed past other characters and popped up wherever the director Vernon Keeble-Watson had told him to aim for. At least that what I think was happening.

As is so often the case with this group many of the frocks for the women were superb. Made in heavy, expensive materials they were exactly of the period.

Unfortunately the sound of the prompt was heard far too often which led to the production being very slowly paced and I rather think many of the cast weren't aware of the stage's acoustic and how it affects the projection of your voice.

Mary Redman

The Guildonians next production is The Importance of Being Earnest from June 10 to 13 at 8pm Saturday matinee 2.30pm. Bookings: 01708 782118 or email susiedrama@gmail.com

Boeing! Boeing!, Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch

Boeing! Boeing! is set a world away in the early 1960s when two thirds of the world was a closed book to the remaining third. No mobiles, no rolling news, not even live television from America. Which meant that a randy bachelor could keep three (or more) air hostesses on a string, provided he had access to the flight schedules. These time tables strictly governed where these attractive young women would be at any one time and only he and the young woman concerned knew where she was, so if take offs and landings were on schedule, where was the problem?
Performed on an elegant Parisian apartment set it should have run like clockwork, but it really didn't suit actor Fred Broom as the miscast leading man Bernard. In his cheap shiny tailoring and clearly not at home in the role he struggled with Marc Camoletti's writing translated by Beverley Cross and Francis Evans.
His naive friend Robert was played by Tom Cornish as a super hysterical, body twisting, bit of a maniac, unable to believe the wealth of pulchritude available around him just for the asking or so it seemed.
Les Girls (which how they would often have been described at the time) consisted of American Airlines southern belle Gloria plus Joanna Hickman's dreadfully accented Lufthansa fraulein Gretchen and the luscious Italian Gabriella played by Sarah Mahoney.
The star of the performance, however, with her rapid fire dialogue and knee-high socks was Megan Leigh Mason's snappy, Le Monde-reading Bertha the French cook. Every line perfectly timed, roasted and served up with more than a hint of sauce, and cheek!
Things just didn't really gell under Matt Devitt's direction. Norman Coates's stylish set also clashed badly with the appalling tailoring of the air hostesses's uniforms which were known then for their super chic tailoring.
Remembering just how declasse this comedy cum farce was in the early 1960s when it first arrived on the London stage, it's difficult to see why the Queen's should choose to revive it now. It just wasn't funny, apart from Bertha.
Mary Redman
Runs to March 28 2015. Bookings 01708 443333.

cut to the chase... theatre company, Deadly Murder, Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch

David Foley's why-did-they-do-it? is so full of breakneck twists and turns that it's not always easy to follow the plot as it chops and changes on a sixpence. Or perhaps as it's an American play that should be a dime or cent.

Premièred in 2007 under the title of If/Then, at the International Mystery Writers' Festival in Kentucky, this production is the first in the UK. On this occasion director Simon Jessop was offered three plays to work on with the company. The result was something he describes as “not turning its back on our traditional and loyal audiences, but would also entice and excite new ones.”

Television star Lucy Benjamin, plays the glamorous yet neurotic, wealthy and middle aged widow Camille. It's the early hours of a night when when she has brought a toy boy she picked up back to her elegant apartment. Tom Cornish plays Billy, admittedly not the physically sleekest of toy boys, and the plot takes off from there.

It also includes Sam Pay as the apartment's night security man Ted, but I can't tell you anything more or you wouldn't be intrigued enough by the plot to go and enjoy just how intricately things pan out.

This may be a shortish review, but the play itself is a short one. We were out by nine forty five including interval, yet it packs a real punch with the totally unexpected events on stage. The three actors work their socks off on a shiny New York apartment set designed by Rodney Ford and I'm here to reassure you that the advice of the RSPCA was adhered to for the welfare of Camille's fish in their tank. Malcolm Ranson was the fight director. The production runs to February 21.

Mary Redman

February 9 2015.

Theatre at Baddow, Jane Austen's Sense And Sensibility

The Parish Hall, Maldon Road, Great Baddow

Originally adapted by the brilliant Andy Graham and Roger Parsley for the equally brilliant SNAP Theatre Company that flourished during the end of the 20th Century this 1999 version of Austen's novel was performed with style and verve by them.

It's not easy to condense 118,544 words in which a lot happens and a lot is spoken too since this story of the Dashwood sisters has a great deal to communicate about life in the early 1800s.

Donna Stevenson made a very lively, rather flighty Marianne with Helen Quigley as her more reserved and sensible sister Elinor.

Forced by straightened finances to live in Devon the audience watches their romances and non-romances. There they are under the minutest observation of their delighted and scatty yet strict Aunt Jennings played with great glee by Beth Crozier.

The "events" include the various men who come and go in their lives. The local gentlemen include Nick Milenkovic's young and good looking Edward Ferrars, Roger Saddington's elegant, older and so much wiser Colonel Brandon. There's also an acting treasure in Liam Mayle's intelligent and so at ease on stage characterisation of anti-hero Willoughby.

When everybody decamped to Aunt Jennings's house in London in search of entertaining society, Ruth Westbrook as a very composed Lucy Steele, intruded with disturbing news. 

There were some delightful frocks for the women and smart suits and uniforms for the men.

Unfortunately this is where I parted company with the directors Pauline Saddington and her assistant Pauline England. Why was Aunt Jennings in the country dressed as a drab housemaid? This is a lady of a certain standing and even her maid wore 20th Century cap and apron of the "Nippy" period. Why were so many of the cast under projecting their words so that we couldn't hear them? This was partly caused by the ceiling above the stage which carries voice upwards and partly by all the black curtains of the set.

All too often cast members were arranged in lines on stage or upstaged because a piece of furniture was badly thought out for a conversation.

As for the habit of blacking out completely between virtually every scene - there's absolutely no need for it. It wastes so much time and lowers the pace because the cast then troops to centre stage. This is followed by working up to the levels of energy previously established.

The backing music and sound score created by Craig Greenslade was excellent though.

Mary Redman

February 8 2015