A SLICE OF SATURDAY NIGHT. To 9 June.
Hornchurch
A SLICE OF SATURDAY NIGHT
by the Heather Brothers
Queen’s Theatre To 9 June 2007
Tue-Sat 8pm Mat 31 May, 9 June 2.30pm
Audio-described 9 June 2.30pm
BSL Signed 6 June
Runs 2hr 15min One interval
TICKETS: 01708 443333
boxoffice@queens-theatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 21 May 2007
A slice of delight for any night.
The Heather Brothers’ pastiche sixties musical recreates weekend nightlife for the 17-year olds of 1964. It’s bright, it’s sexy and it’s also filled with nerves and over-indulgence. Eric’s Club A Go-Go is created onstage as a giant jukebox in Mark Walters’ design, garishly coloured and with giant 7” vinyl singles rising and falling to allow male and female toilets to be hauled in for the behind-the-scenes scenes.
It’s here lads who make out as studs let on to us they’re virgins, while girls who keep a virginal front allow they’ve been and gone and done it, and feel shame or nerves. And it’s here, as the night rolls round to midnight (closing time in those days) Garry and Eddie empty their insides out, something Matt Devitt’s production thankfully doesn’t male too explicit.
But Devitt misses no trick. The nerves induced by the opposite sex are repeatedly comic, especially when Rick sings out his desire for Sharon in his mind, while unable to speak anything but Beatles trivia to her outloud. Thankfully for their nerves, and the audience’s, she’s able to be more direct.
The resident Queen’s company have the energy of 17-year olds, but are too adult-looking to carry it off. Still, the distancing does no harm, as there’s an elegiac, if hardly sentimental, feel to the whole piece. It’s provided by older, wiser club owner Eric, his greased quiff matched by his hard exterior under which beats pure golden rhythms. Ironically, in his gear, Simon Parrish looks young as any of his supposed juniors and notably more youthful than several.
Never mind; the whole show, like the teens’ Saturday night out, is about having fun. Devitt and his company make sure we have it, thankfully without the heartache that goes with being a teenager in, or out of, love. Loveday Smith, brightest-dressed of the girls who feel exploited and excited at once, does a good line in tough rejection, while Richard Brightiff’s Garry, male answer to the blonde bombshell, eyes up women in the audience even as he protests his innocence to spurned girlfriend Sue. All good clean fun.
Penny/Shirl: Lindsay Ashworth
Garry/Terry: Richard Brightiff
Sharon: Karen Fisher-Pollard
Rick: Simon Jessop
Musician: Jane Milligan
Sue: Wendy Parkin
Eric “Rubber Legs” De Vene: Simon Parrish
Eddie: Steve Simmonds
Bridget: Loveday Smith
Director: Matt Devitt
Designer: Mark Walters
Lighting: Richard Godin
Sound: Ed Clarke
Musical Director: Carol Sloman
Choreographer: Liz Marsh
2007-05-22 01:21:26