ABSURD PERSON SINGULAR. To 12 May.
Bolton
ABSURD PERSON SINGULAR
by Alan Ayckbourn
Octagon Theatre To 12 May 2007
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 9 May 2pm
Audio-described 9 May 7.30pm
BSL Signed 10 May
Runs 2hr 50min Two intervals
TICKETS: 01204 520661
www.octagonbolton.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 5 May
Too much absurdity, not enough personality.
Alan Ayckbourn’s first major play (1972) can still be claimed as his most completely successful, if not most ambitious, and is among the finest 20th-century comedies. On 3 successive Christmas Eves in the kitchens of 3 married couples, things fall apart. There’s the farce of entrepreneur Sidney Hopcroft’s self-promoting party, the virtuoso middle-act (built round a silent character’s suicide attempts) with drinks reluctantly offered by architect Geoffrey and Eva, and the non-celebratory finale at bank-manager Ronald’s freezing house, his wife Marion sinking into alcoholism as the Hopcrofts intrude to reveal the material power-game underlying the ‘Festive Season’.
It’s both hilarious and devastating, but needs careful handling. Director Chris Monks takes the first word of Ayckbourn’s title too much to heart. Performances play up comic mannerisms but miss the underpinning reality. What remains is fitfully funny and makes enough of the point. But the style is overly emphatic; no sentence, no moment can go without acting or direction punching in to make a point. It weighs the play down, even when the surface seems swift (the production runs 15-25 minutes longer than the other 3 we’ve reviewed).
And it decreases the threat Jack Lord’s vulgarian Sidney eventually becomes as his growing wealth gives him influence among people who, snobbishly, despise him (Ayckbourn’s remorselessly two-sided about the Hopcrofts). When Lord finally ascends a ladder amid the Christmas-tree heap of household detritus separating the 2 wings of Fiona Watt’s kitchen set, the non-realism of his surrounds also impairs Sidney’s sinister side.
And though Nia Gwynne has some pathos as his put-upon wife Jane, bowing backwards before the socially grander as if they were royalty, Monks’ style eventually unbalances her mix of sympathy and silliness.
This pair are always the most vulnerable in productions like this, which work from the outside-in (ever the wrong way with Ayckbourn). Paul McCleary’s despondent bank-manager, moving from his act one suit, spoiled by Sidney’s spilled soda-water, to the crumpled informality of the final act gives a good idea of how the humour might work. The production’s not a wash-out but, like the characters’ Christmasses, no cause for celebration.
Marion: Sherry Baines
Eva: Alison Darling
Jane: Nia Gwynne
Sidney: Jack Lord
Ronald: Paul McCleary
Geoffrey: Robert Perkins
Director: Chris Monks
Designer: Fiona Watt
Lighting: Jacob Osterman
Sound: Andy Smith
2007-05-08 00:31:06