KIndly leave the stage ****
Sun, 8 Oct 2006, 06:04 pmGordon the Optom7 posts in thread
KIndly leave the stage ****
Sun, 8 Oct 2006, 06:04 pm‘Kindly leave the stage’, a comedy written by John Chapman, is the latest production in the cosy 90-seat Garrick Theatre and is showing nightly until 21st October in Meadow Street, Guildford.
The scene is an ostentatious flat in London (excellent set) where a couple of dinner guests, Madge (Rowena De Gruchy) and her husband Charles (Rodney van Groningen) are in the embarrassing position of witnessing the marriage break-up of their hosts Sarah (Susannah Devenish) and her husband of 15 years, Rupert (Liam McGinniss).
Enter Sarah’s mother, Mrs Cullen (Tina Moone) a fading Prima Donna to stir the problems.
Rupert, a Bertie Wooster type, starts making arrangements for his departure from the home, totally ignoring the guests still seated at the dinner table. Glamorous Sarah treats her friends with ‘attitude’ and so the plot develops. Then, when the prompt feeds Rupert a line, it becomes obvious that this is actually a play within a play. The prompt is a star struck Italian lady (Tracey Myhill) who can hardly speak English let alone prompt efficiently.
The play then turns into a real life exposé of the goings-on within the repertory company. The audience are drawn into the fray and when the nurse (Penny Searle) appears, total confusion reigns.
Madge (who off-stage is Rupert’s wife) and Charles are very much in love, whilst the actress playing Sarah will chase anything in trousers.
An attempt to save face by lowering the curtain was unsuccessful, as it refuses to budge. Initially every attempt to find the director fails. Then slightly deaf Edward (Philip Fryer), who is more than a little inebriated, is found in the nearby pub and dragged back to the play. Edward was once a talented Shakespearean actor, but is now a has-been thespian. Due to his condition, he is not sure whether he is in the play, witnessing an actual real life happening, or whether he is still playing the Bard’s scripts from 30 years earlier.
As you can see, this is a play which demands a fair amount of following, as the script crosses frequently from the stage production back to realism. Although the script is very clever, it is really quite thin on script laughs, but thanks to the truly wonderful cast who work extremely hard, they all capture their characters perfectly. Every funny situation is milked and presented to the max.
I would describe this play as more suitable for adults, purely because teenagers and a younger audience would miss the subtleties and perhaps be bored by the family bickering and adult themes.
The scene is an ostentatious flat in London (excellent set) where a couple of dinner guests, Madge (Rowena De Gruchy) and her husband Charles (Rodney van Groningen) are in the embarrassing position of witnessing the marriage break-up of their hosts Sarah (Susannah Devenish) and her husband of 15 years, Rupert (Liam McGinniss).
Enter Sarah’s mother, Mrs Cullen (Tina Moone) a fading Prima Donna to stir the problems.
Rupert, a Bertie Wooster type, starts making arrangements for his departure from the home, totally ignoring the guests still seated at the dinner table. Glamorous Sarah treats her friends with ‘attitude’ and so the plot develops. Then, when the prompt feeds Rupert a line, it becomes obvious that this is actually a play within a play. The prompt is a star struck Italian lady (Tracey Myhill) who can hardly speak English let alone prompt efficiently.
The play then turns into a real life exposé of the goings-on within the repertory company. The audience are drawn into the fray and when the nurse (Penny Searle) appears, total confusion reigns.
Madge (who off-stage is Rupert’s wife) and Charles are very much in love, whilst the actress playing Sarah will chase anything in trousers.
An attempt to save face by lowering the curtain was unsuccessful, as it refuses to budge. Initially every attempt to find the director fails. Then slightly deaf Edward (Philip Fryer), who is more than a little inebriated, is found in the nearby pub and dragged back to the play. Edward was once a talented Shakespearean actor, but is now a has-been thespian. Due to his condition, he is not sure whether he is in the play, witnessing an actual real life happening, or whether he is still playing the Bard’s scripts from 30 years earlier.
As you can see, this is a play which demands a fair amount of following, as the script crosses frequently from the stage production back to realism. Although the script is very clever, it is really quite thin on script laughs, but thanks to the truly wonderful cast who work extremely hard, they all capture their characters perfectly. Every funny situation is milked and presented to the max.
I would describe this play as more suitable for adults, purely because teenagers and a younger audience would miss the subtleties and perhaps be bored by the family bickering and adult themes.
Very skilfully directed by Lynne Devenish, who, along with her cast kept up the pace and so gave the writer more credence than was perhaps deserved. A first rate production.
I saw the show Fiday night
Mon, 9 Oct 2006, 08:18 amI saw the show Fiday night and conccur with Gordon's review, with the seating increasing to 98 plus two equals 100 and Edward is an ageing actor waiting to come on and has his agent in the audience, prompt never found the "director".
This show is for regular theatregoers to appreciate as you need to concentrate to keep track of what play you are following, the cast give credit to amateur theatre as they know their lines well and the delivery is fast and furious at times. We noticed a few people did not return from interval, probably confused with what they were seeing and may have been convinced that what they were seeing was a poorly presented play by a very amateurish company, which is certainly not the case here.
This is why it is important to have a synopsis of the play in the programme, not that everyone reads their programme before they go into the theatre.
It is not very often that the audience is sitting confused and not sure whether they realy are meant to go to interval or will the curtain suddenly go up and the farce continue. The audience chatter was animated at the end of the play as they discussed the action on stage, obviously a sign of the directors success.