A PAGEANT. To 5 May.
Scarborough
A PAGEANT
(Intimate Exchanges)
by Alan Ayckbourn
Stephen Joseph Theatre (The Round) in rep to 5 May 2007
7.30pm
Runs 2hr 25min One interval
TICKETS: 01723 370541
www.sjt.uk.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 28 April
Intimate Exchanges plays Off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters 31 May-1 July 2007 www.59e59.org
Another fine mess handled with comic ingenuity and humanity.
This was, originally, the final Intimate Exchange to open; in February 1984. This plethora of plays, this dinner-service of dramas, isn’t made remarkable only by its technical intricacy, as characters come and go, all played by 2 actors (still in 2007 some audience-members tell each other how long it took to realise the roles are doubled). Nor is it the frequent verbal and sometimes visual comic ingenuity.
It isn’t just variety of incident either, mixing wild comedy and deep sadness. It isn’t simply the characters who take on the much-loved familiarity of soaps, as they must, often being seen in the same opening scenes. Ayckbourn uses this familiarity to surprise or shock at their different developments from these openings, even while the major post-interval scenes, which give each play its name and where the main developments occur, are often filled with laughs.
This web of comedies is distinguished by a sympathy for humanity shared by most great comic dramatists, including Shakespeare, Moliere and Chekhov (who described 2 of his great dramas as comedies).
Such writers do not need to judge (though all include ridiculous characters) because of their understanding. We, in the audience, might dislike a character at times, but we can change our minds – as we do about people we know. Here, headteacher Toby Teasdale is cruel to his wife Celia in the school pageant, refusing to let her play Boudicca in favour of the unconfident Sylvie, whom he fancies.
Yet Celia’s grand-dame rehearsal shows she’s ridiculous and Sylvie is an escape from the stuffy middle-class respectability Celia stands for (the fact each Exchange opens with Celia’s ‘cigarette moment’ shouldn’t place her in a specially sympathetic light).
There are funny moments here, such as Toby and Lionel talking to each other under the pageant-stage. Bill Champion’s characters (closer in age) may be the more consistent, though he finely differentiates his bare-armed, muscular and wily Lionel, stooping, explosive Toby and ever-nervous Miles. But Claudia Elmhirst handles the older women confidently while making young Sylvie Bell, ambitious yet realistic, slouching yet vigorous, a true heroine in this world-tour of parochial existence.
Celia Teasdale/Sylvie Bell: Claudia Elmhirst
Toby Teasdale/Miles Coombes: Bill Champion
Directors: Alan Ayckbourn, Tim Luscombe
Designer: Michael Holt
Lighting: Ben Vickers
2007-05-01 11:58:21