A HAPPY MEDIUM. To 15 November.
St Andrews/Tour
A HAPPY MEDIUM
by Dorothy Paul and John Bett
Byre Theatre to 20 September then tour to 15 November 2003
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat Wed & Sat 2.30pm
Audio-described/BSL Signed 18 September, 20 September 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 20min One interval
TICKETS: 01334 475000
boxoffice@byretheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 29 August
Laugh? I could have snored.OK, so it's easy to score points in a one-line header. But easy one-liners is what this piece is all about. That, and showcasing Dorothy Paul. Both these aims are achieved in an opening monologue of resentful bereavement, delivered solo and in reality to the audience, even if in theory to an undear departed sister.
It's finely done. Then Ms Paul leaves the stage and the audience duly, having laughed, applauds. That's showbiz. That's what we seem to be here for. For, as only someone straying in from south of the border would need telling, Dorothy Paul is an expert comic actor. A kind of latter-day Dora Bryan, only, here at least, far more downbeat (this is Glasgow - Maryhill too - after all).
How much the scripted role of Ellen matches up to the performance is anybody's guess. I suspect it may well do so less as the production ripens. Ms Paul's Ellen is built on asides, throwaways, stumblings and other inconsequentilities of speech. You'd hardly think she was performing, much of the time. But she is, brilliantly enough.
Yet, I can't throw off memories of her splendid work, years ago, in The Steamie, helping push the story of Mr Culfeathers and his mince 'n' tatties into comedy history. No-one should be forever judged by one performance. But there's a sense here of talent being exploited but hardly stretched by its material.
That's clearly enough for many in a (not overly-youthful) audience. There were laughs a-plenty - a few, admittedly, from me. The rest of the cast have to resort to character acting with lines that might be from the John Godber or Willy Russell rejects bag. That bad.
The attempts at a plot are embarrassing. The pretext, that Ellen trying to contact her dead sister one year on, not only serves up the defrosted funeral food (the play's a killer for the ham sandwich trade) but is accidentally put into a trance by her semi-trained medical "daughter" (who isn't, but don't ask - the closer we get to relationships the soggier grows the sentimentality).
This takes a whole act to achieve. The payoff seems about to come post-interval, with Ellen set up as a kind of Mystic McMeg conning a credulous client (the excellent Kay Gallie playing it hilariously straight).
After that, the writing falls flat and the cast's efforts to inject humour and vigour grow more heoircally desperate. There was even a double entendre falling silently flat. And a drunk scene that outstays its welcome by several tipples.
The cast is good, the effects decent enough in a homely way. Ken Alexander's production is adequate if humdrum (as Byre artistic director I hope he has something more challenging up his repertoire sleeve).
There's no reason Dorothy Paul shouldn't be given a vehicle for her considerable, and individual, performing talent. Only, it ought to be one with an engine that works.
Ellen: Dorothy Paul
Audrey: Maureen Carr
Gemma: Claire Knight
Mr Proudfoot: Stewart McLean
Mrs Cameron: KayGallie
Director: Ken Alexander
Designer: Charles Cusick-Smith
Lighting: Simon Wilkinson
2003-08-30 14:23:37