Last of the Red Hot Lovers

‘Last of The Red Hot Lovers’ was written in 1969 when the playwright, Neil Simon, was 42 yrs old. The next year the play won a Writers’ Guild of America Award. It is often said that the funniest people have the roughest start in life; Simon was brought up in Manhattan during the depression, when he and his family were abandoned by his tailoring father.
This production is at the Garrick Theatre, 16 Meadow Street, Guildford. Performances at 8.00 pm nightly until 15^th October. Matinees at 2.00 pm on 25^th September and 2^nd October.

 

 

       Married to obsessively, moral Thelma (unseen) for 24 years, forty-seven-year-old Barney (Peter Clark), owner of a seafood restaurant, is fed up with his naivety and so decides to join the licentious Flower Power era and play the field. When Barney discovers that his mother’s tasteless, Manhattan apartment is vacant for a few hours twice a week, he decides that this will become his secret love nest.

       In an attempt to have extramarital sex, Barney invites brassy Elaine (Narelle Belle), an Amy Winehouse look alike, complete with beehive hairdo (hair by Lynda Stubbs) to be his first conquest. However Elaine is a blatant, hard-drinking, uninhibited seductress, so can the nervous, ever-chattering Barney fail to score?

       Then he asks a paranoid acting student, Bobbi (Anne-Marie Biagioni) around. Beautiful young Bobbi turns out to be a dope-smoking, total fruitcake. When Barney tries her marijuana, will it be his release, at last, from a limited sex life?

       Then comes his wife’s best pal, the manic-depressive Jeannette (Siobhan Vincent). She too is desperate for love and security. Possibly Barney’s true match?

 

Is it co-incidental that the play’s author, Neil Simon, had four wives in his life too?

 

The script is wonderfully constructed, with some hilarious situations occurring as Barney continues to dig an even bigger hole for himself. There was a point about half way through the Bobbi episode which I felt didn’t quite work, but this was very much a script or dialogue problem.

The set was very well constructed and the décor (Annie Bramble) was true to the period and its elderly owner. Good lighting designed by Don Allen and operated by Liam Kirwain.

The inventive direction by Andrew Warwick, and his associate Linda Redman, was intelligent. He created a very natural rapport between the characters. Peter Clark starts the play as the extremely nervous, gabbling wreck trying his best to do what a man has to do. Gradually he changes over the acts as he comes to terms with his new partners.

Narelle was amazing as the experienced, one-night stand girl, delivering her droll and sarcastic lines to the crumbling Barney. Anny as the student, who chattered even more than Barney, gave a magnificent performance with Peter as the drugs worked – a special bit of theatre. Poor Siobhan had the difficult task of having to be miserable and depressed, when so many hilarious events were taking place around her; again, a masterly performance. The body language was perfect, pace ideal and with this truly exceptional cast – the best of professional actors couldn’t have been better – the laughs just flowed. The audience loved it. Highly recommended.