KVETCH (Review) - SUNDAY TIMES

Kvetch Review: JAN HALLAM 24may06 Rechabites Hall Season ends June 3 Stephen Berkoff, who wrote this play, is one of the great masters of contemporary theatre and it's probably a fair bet that he's done his share of kvetching – Yiddish for complaining – in his time. This brilliant, bubbling mind has some sharp opinions about the world and is not afraid to kick them around. But in this engaging, at times prickly, production directed by Bryce Manning, which as the title suggests incorporates a solid 90 minutes of whining angst, the complaints are much closer to home. Frank (played to neurotic perfection by Peter Clark) is a salesman who is tired of every boring corner of his life and is perfectly matched to his bored and neglected wife, Donna (Summer Williams). They do something completely unusual one night by having Hal (Matt Penny), one of Frank's workmates, around for dinner and the scene is set for some wildly, madly and completely absurd moments of kvetching. As half the play is eavesdropping on what's going on in each of the trio's murky minds and the rest is cringing at what they actually end up saying to each other, the audience is privy to some pretty juicy, confronting and outrageously funny insights into these dysfunctional people's lives. Clark's central performance as the angry, neurotic Frank, whose passive aggression reaches titanic proportions, is a thing to behold. Frank's unravelling is so painful, you might find yourself curling up in sympathy. While Williams – a sort of Bridget Jones on valium – and Penny, whose Hal is so excruciatingly shy you want to finish his sentences for him, give tremendous support. But a laugh is never far away and, because it's Berkoff, it will give you a little indigestion as the insecurities of this merry band start encroaching beyond the footlights. It's a good night out.