ALBERT NOBBS. To 15 July.
Oldham
ALBERT NOBBS
by Gordon Steel
Coliseum Theatre To 15 July 2006
Tue-Thu; Sat 7.30pm Fri 8pm Mat 1, 15 July 2.30pm 5 July 2pm
Audio-described 13 July
BSL Signed 6 July
Runs 2hr 10min One interval
TICKETS: 0161 624 2829
www.coliseum.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 24 June
Showing life goes on, and you have to laugh.
Thnigs can only get better, you'd suppose, once life goes on without work to clog it up. Not so for Albert, who finds himself stressed-out on his first morning of retirement. His wife Connie wants this, asks that, has her friend in. Gone are Albert's happily companionable days moaning about low pay, poor conditions and a tough life with mates at work. Then he finds himself in mourning as an accident deprives him of Connie. The woman with whom he's been rowing over not realising the difference between shopping for mints and mince has apparently been all along his soul-mate. He's bereaved, bereft: totally adrift.
It must strike home to many people, this. Bitter arguments with someone you can't bear the thought of parting from. Hardly able to live together, you couldn't survive apart. Albert, as his last name hints, is a recalcitrant person, bad-tempered and mean. Nevertheless, he's no sooner a widower than his late wife's female friends come clustering round. There's false-toothed Alice for comedy, smart-styled Rose for eventual romance. And Connie's ghost to comfort and encourage him to move on.
All this is neatly played at the Coliseum in Kevin Shaw's emotionally-aware, comically-paced production, set in the dowdy living room, angles thrown slightly awry to reflect Albert's dislocation, of Alison Heffernan's set. Former artistic director Kenneth Alan Taylor returns with an all-time curmudgeon of an Albert, shifting reluctantly around, objecting to everything, absolutely lacking in adventure, only finally moved to a smile or joke. His opening grief, addressed to Connie's corpse soon turns into rage against her; complaint is his emotional rut, through which every feeling flows. Taylor gives Albert a strong underpinning of deep, if long-suppressed, emotion.
Though Sue Wallace perhaps tries too much for an other-worldly look and walk as a revenant she creates with finesse a woman from a generation that put domestic responsability first and who knew warm emotions usually had to be sublimated and love distilled from a mucky rain of male grumpiness. Su Douglas adds contrasting exaggeration and character in her brace of characters.
As befits a play starting at Hull Truck, Albert Nobbs works best as a series of short-term dramatic tactics, with only the thinnest of dramatic skins offering any overall shape. But Steel's king of the deadly one-liner, as repeated loud laughter round the auditorium proved.
Rose/Alice: Su Douglas
Albert Nobbs: Kenneth Alan Taylor
Connie: Sue Wallace
Director: Kevin Shaw
Designer: Alison Heffernan
Lighting: Phil Davies
Sound: Dan Ogden
2006-06-25 16:12:59