A KICK IN THE BAUBLES. To 21 January.

Hull

A KICK IN THE BAUBLES
by Gordon Steel

Hull Truck Theatre To 21 January 2006
Mon-Sat 8pm no performance 26-27, 31 Dec, 2 Jan
Runs 2hr 10min One interval

TICKETS: 01482 323638
Review: Timothy Ramsden 20 December

A sitcom writ long, with plenty of laughs and finely performed.
Gordon Steel’s play is another in the miseries of Christmas school. It has shortcomings: his couples vary between wafer to paper-thin characterisation, events have little sense of development, while people come and go with little internal logic.

Yet it’s often good fun, with more than a few laugh-outloud moments (nobody’s ever going to write a joke about alphabet soup to top Steel’s here). For, if it’s all on the surface, it’s a surface recognisable from the moment Frank arrives home, defeated by Christmas shopping, downbeat comments dripping from his mouth. You see his points, but also understand the endurance Jackie Lye’s wife needs to keep going.

That he’s been made redundant is almost a given, but Steel uses the fact for a late plot revelation which affirms what makes these people interesting: whatever the strains, and however they quarrel, there’s an essential goodness and resilience that keeps them, and therefore the much-mismanaged world, going.

Robert Hudson and Jackie Lye make everything possible of their characters. Christine Cox and Jason Furnival have a tougher time as the apparently rich, snobbish relations. Doreen especially is less a character than a butt of the next joke, her every saying marking her out or knocking her down. Cox faithfully plays up to each wave of non-sympathy.

Chris Connel’s tattoed neighbour from hell, all loud-music and rough cheer, is contrasted by his drippy long-haired boyfriend to Frank and Jean’s daughter Milly. Connel’s quiet-mannered Darren challenges audiences to identify him as the actor who’s been so riotous as shaven-headed Gary.

And Natalie Blades transforms between mentally vacant Alex (attempts to comprehend anything outside her limited knowledge fading as she returns into her happy mental fog), upfront Julie giving middle-aged Harry a touch-tour of the boob job Gary’s bought her for Christmas, before receding behind spectacles as shy, thoughtful Milly. In their different ways, all these young characters have an innocence contrasting the jaded experience life has brought the older generation.

If the script has weaker patches, this reliable company and Gareth Tudor Price’s direction carry things to the next batch of laughs, never long in coming.

Milly/Alex/Julie: Natalie Blades
Gary/Darren: Chris Connel
Doreen: Christine Cox
Harry: Jason Furnival
Frank: Robert Hudson
Jean: Jackie Lye

Director: Gareth Tudor Price
Designer: Pip Leckenby
Lighting: Graham Kirk

2005-12-26 12:17:55