AUDIENCE WITH MURDER. To 29 August.

Edinburgh

AUDIENCE WITH MURDER
by Colin Wakefield and Roger Leach

Theatre Maketa at Theatre Truck To 29 August 2004
2pm & 5pm
Runs 1hr 40min One interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 24 August

The venue is the star in this moving new drama.The venue is indeed a truck, converted into a 40-seat theatre. A small stage behind the driver's cab faces 10 raked rows with 2 seats either side an aisle; then there's just enough space for a stage manager controlling light and sound before reaching the rear exit. Devised by long-time Cheek by Jowl luminary Nick Kidd, the vehicle is intended to take theatre to places where audiences might potentially number well, up to 40.

It's surprisingly comfortable, and air-conditioned. Among this initial trucking programme the most ample item is a piece of hokum in the post-Sleuth thriller style. Playing games with audience expectations, it's crammed with sudden changes of perspective. All good fun, though the writers' method for changing our perceptions becomes rather familiar.

Hokum has its audience, offering the illusion of everyday reality while getting away with outrageous implausibilities. It's theatrical fare at many seaside summer shows, for example not only the south-coast resort (with its own theatre) for which the ultimate play-within-a-play here is destined. The fun lies in the skill with which the implausibilities are arrayed.

And this production moves from a very funny opening scene, where the initial characters are reading a novice writer's script (based with increasing transparency on her home life) to a literally dark conclusion where the firearms come out in an empty theatre. Here the venue comes into its own as voices echo round the truck and characters clatter close up to us.

Ironically, despite its novel venue this is (for all its traditional dramatic elements) less traditional' Fringe material than the kind of thing for more conservative audiences which might have half-filled Edinburgh's large King's Theatre during the winter. It would need big TV names there. But it's doubtful they'd provide better performances than here.

True, Darren Cheek's gum-chewing, very youthful, detective is hard to swallow (the plot struggles several times with its age relationships). But Cheek is excellent as the bullied ex-pupil, as is Tim Charrington as a bullying teacher. Leda Hodgson and Aimee Thackray equal them as assertive or shy females, often with secrets of their own.

Alan: Tim Charrington
Dean: Darren Cheek
Sue: Leda Hodgson
Kelly: Aimee Thackray

Director: Hank Turnbull
Designer/Lighting: Luci
Sound: Sondaggio

2004-09-02 09:46:11