A CHORUS OF DISAPPROVAL To 4 November.
Keswick.
A CHORUS OF DISAPPROVAL
by Alan Ayckbourn.
Theatre By The Lake In rep to 4 November 2009.
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat 2, 23 Sept, 14, 24 Oct, 4 Nov 2pm.
Audio-described 2 Sept 2pm.
Captioned 4 Nov 2pm.
Under-26s Free 18 Sept, 9, 30 Oct.
Runs 2hr 55min One interval.
TICKETS: 017687 74411.
www.theatrebythelake.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 28 August.
Dark and light combine in satire that’s probably the hit of Keswick’s season.
A chorus of approval for Keswick’s Theatre By The Lake after a successful first decade. Artistic Director Ian Forrest and Associate Stefan Escreet have developed repertoire and brought together some fine acting companies, going from strength to greater strength and regularly filling their performance spaces.
Alan Ayckbourn’s 1984 play is large-scale; following its Scarborough premiere it filled the South Bank’s capacious Olivier stage, while the most recent production was mounted jointly by three theatres. And it has a fascinating place in Alan Ayckbourn’s long writing career. Looked at one way it’s the last of his suburban satires - 1985’s Woman in Mind moved into more overtly troubled waters, as did many subsequent plays.
Yet it casts a larger shadow. Its precursor, with literally troubled waters, was 1981’s Way Upstream, a sinister social metaphor for the new society that was emerging from 1970s middle-class uncertainty. In Chorus newcomer to small-town Pendon, Guy Jones (Richard Galazka, spot-on with a wide-eyed, vocally apologetic manner echoing his neutral name) rises inadvertently through the ranks of local operatic society PALOS to the lead role in The Beggar’s Opera.
While this is happening he becomes netted by local antagonisms and corruption of which he’s only peripherally aware. Money governs this small society as it did the London of John Gay’s 1728 satire, or Germany 200 years later, where Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill recreated Beggar’s as The Threepenny Opera.
Forrest’s production shows the Amateur Operatics as an unartistic lot, apart from director Dafydd (Simeon Truby, after a few moments' fussily-mannered externalised acting settling to a strongly characterised portrait). And he's self-absorbed, someone for whom PALOS is an escape from inadequacies, while liberated couple Ian and Fay are unreflective sensualists rather than sexual sophisticates.
Ben Ingles gives the youngest PALOS-ite, original star of the show, a street-aggro body-language combined with youthful boredom as he stands with Macheath’s prison-bars wrapped languidly around his neck. But there’s no weak link in this rich mix of the comic and the sinister - a fine revival of a major Ayckbourn play, which forms a fitting part of a deservedly celebratory season.
Guy Jones: Richard. Galazka.
Linda Washbrook: Katie Hayes.
Ian Hubbard: Dennis Herdman.
Enid Washbrook: Maria Gough.
Rebecca Huntley-Pike: Eliza Hunt.
Crispin Usher: Ben Ingles.
Fay Hubbard: Polly Lister.
Ted Washnrook: James Nickerson.
Hannah Llewellyn: Aimée Thomas.
Dafydd ap Llewellyn. Simeon Truby.
Bridget Baines: Ella Vale.
Jarvis Huntley-Pike: John Webb.
Mr Ames: Andrew Whitehead.
Director: Ian Forrest.
Designer: Martin Johns.
Lighting: Nick Beadle.
Sound: Matt Hall.
Musical Director: Richard Atkinson.
Choreographer: Lorelei Lynn.
Dialect coach: Charmian Hoare.
Fight director: Kate Waters.
2009-08-31 22:58:13