A SMALL FAMILY BUSINESS. To 13 October.
Watford
A SMALL FAMILY BUSINESS
by Alan Ayckbourn.
Palace Theatre To 13 October 2007.
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat 3, 10 Oct 2.30pm, 6, 13, Oct 3pm.
Audio-described 13 Oct 3pm.
BSL Signed 2 Oct.
Runs 2hr 35min One interval.
TICKETS: 01923 225671.
www.watforpalacetheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 27 September.
A play, and performances, worth seeing; if only we could see more of them.
Janet Bird has designed a splendid-looking set for Watford’s revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy of menaces, like a show-home on an affluent private housing estate. But it’s not very practical. Many audience-members can’t see the kitchen-door where a significant scuffle take place, the first sign all is not rosy in the family, or the business, which honest Jack McCracken is about to head for his equally honest father-in-law.
Railings repeatedly conceal faces on this two-decker set’s upper-storey. It’s hard to feel the full force of anger when the mouth expressing it is obstructed. Even when a speaker is visible, the important reactions of a listener are hidden. This won’t do; Palace artistic director Brigid Larmour must ensure her visiting directors and designers remember they are paid to entertain people, not to put (literal) barriers in their way.
Yet Bird’s job wasn’t easy. This large-scale play was written for London’s massive, open-stage Olivier Theatre rather than Ayckbourn’s Round in Scarborough. It was probably necessary to build the stage forward of Watford’s proscenium arch and the side panels, with their obstructive edges give shape to the stage in a way the open Olivier didn’t require. Nor does that theatre have its stalls below stage-level, which makes the top tier problematic.
It’s a shame, for Christopher Luscombe has directed a well-cast, more than decent production. It’s not rich in laughs (the biggest came at the bloodiest moment) and the sinister final twist in Jack’s initially benign self-certainty, with its new connotation of ‘the family’, seems contrived. But it is contrived, and a hard trick to pull off.
Events are appallingly gripping. This 1987 play (subtly updated here) is as sinister as Ayckbourn’s 1981 Way Upstream. If less apocalyptic than the earlier piece it’s a closer dissection of moral laxity within socially respectable England.
Luscombe moves the action forward briskly, revealing this venial mini-society, and giving even Nathan Amzi’s comically slow Roy a sudden slap of relevance to the all-embracing corruption, while Barbara Wilshere as Jack’s wife shows someone honest as they come; so long as ‘they’ don’t think about morality rather than convenience.
Jack McCracken: Michael Garner.
Poppy: Barbara Wilshere.
Ken Ayres: Ian Lindsay.
Tina: Claire Parrish.
Roy Ruston: Nathan Amzi.
Samantha: Zoe Thorne.
Cliff: Jonty Stephens.
Anita: Josie Walker.
Desmond: Clive Hayward.
Harriet: Deborah Maclaren.
Yvonne Doggett: Cherith Mellor.
Benedict Hough: David Holt.
Lotario/Uberto/Orlando/Vincenzo/Giorgio Rivetti: Eliot Giuralarocca.
Director: Christopher Luscombe.
Designer: Janet Bird.
Lighting: Tim Mascall.
Sound: Jason Barnes.
Dialect coach: Martin McKellan.
Fight director: Malcolm Ranson.
2007-09-30 12:35:57