The Bed Before Yesterday
Fri, 1 Dec 2006, 12:08 pmstinger4 posts in thread
The Bed Before Yesterday
Fri, 1 Dec 2006, 12:08 pmWritten by Ben (Aldwych Farces) Travers, directed by Pat Stroud for Melville Theatre Company. I must say I am most surprised that, as I write, GtO has not (yet) posted a review of this play.
After my most pleasant experience at Harbour earlier this week, I was expecting to see another farce with which to compare it. However, this was not to be. Described in the program as 'a classic English comedy', I would classify this as a 'realist' light drama. If the writer meant it to be a comedy, this cast certainly weren't playing it for laughs. One thing is for sure - a farce it is not.
The play is set in 1930s London. On the surface, it is about the sexual awakening of a rich, feisty but naive middle-aged woman and as such has a lot of comic potential. Having said that, it is also about family loyalties, rape in marriage, promiscuity and the many and varying degrees of prostitution. If these issues were considered funny in the 1930s, they are no longer and nor should they be.
There were some attempts at making the story a bit more relevant to today, but of course you can only go so far with this. Viewed as a piece of 'classic' theatre without any real relevance to modern life however, I thought it was generally well-designed and well-performed. It's on for two more nights - and the bar stays open afterwards!
The bed before yesterday
Sun, 3 Dec 2006, 03:06 pmWhoever thought that I would be agreeing with Stinger? I must be getting old!
Admittedly it wasn’t one of Ben Travers better farces and at first I thought that Stinger’s comments about the sexual abuse etc was a bit over the top, but on thinking about this production, it made me wonder what a Tom and Jerry cartoon would be like, devoid of the humour – mass murder and torture alone would remain.
Seeing this play was a similar experience. Despite a very good technical production, lighting, scenery etc, very good acting all-round the show only raised a couple of real laughs, this is because the acting style and direction was in the wrong genre totally, the punchy pace required was also wide of the mark. Had it been a who-dunnit or straight drama, the cast would have been excellent, but this was a farce and 80% of the humour was missing. Some very good lines just disappeared into the ether.
Admittedly it wasn’t one of Ben Travers better farces and at first I thought that Stinger’s comments about the sexual abuse etc was a bit over the top, but on thinking about this production, it made me wonder what a Tom and Jerry cartoon would be like, devoid of the humour – mass murder and torture alone would remain.
Seeing this play was a similar experience. Despite a very good technical production, lighting, scenery etc, very good acting all-round the show only raised a couple of real laughs, this is because the acting style and direction was in the wrong genre totally, the punchy pace required was also wide of the mark. Had it been a who-dunnit or straight drama, the cast would have been excellent, but this was a farce and 80% of the humour was missing. Some very good lines just disappeared into the ether.
I noticed that one highlight to look forward to next October, Stinger directs a play at Melville – only 303 more sleeps!