AUGUSTUS DOES HIS BIT/O'FLAHERTY VC/PRESS CUTTINGS. To 25 November.

Richmond

AUGUSTUS DOES HIS BIT/O’FLAHERTY VC/[PRESS CUTTINGS
by George Bernard Shaw

Orange Tree Theatre In rep to 25 November 2006
14, 15, 23-25 Nov 7.30pm Mat 18, 23 Nov 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 45min One interval

TICKETS: 020 8940 3633
www.orangetreetheatre.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 13 November

Minor musings of a master with facetiousness and philosophy.
Richmond’s Orange Tree is celebrating the 150th anniversary of George Bernard Shaw’s birth in style, with plays by the great Irishman and his contemporaries. Here comes something valuable in its rarity, a fortnight of one-act triple-bills. The opening trio is set against the First World War.

Shaw reserved his major musing on war and society, Heartbreak House, for post-war. These plays are lighter, Augustus Does His Bit openly proclaiming itself an entertainment for soldiers on leave, and aptly making fun of the donkey-officer class. O’Flaherty VC looks behind the idea of heroism, in the light of Anglo-Irish relations, while Press Cuttings incorporate the woman question into its discussion of military and civil government.

A hefty helping of Shavian facetiousness, including an officer-buffoon and a prime minister in drag, makes for heavy humour. Augustus is anything but hefty. Its lighter-than-air spy story evaporates before it finishes, though its vision of the establishment as one big idiotic family remains powerful.

Toby Frow’s production overlards the insubstantial piece with the kind of stage-management participation Orange Tree boss Sam Walters has used more effectively in other productions, and makes Stuart Fox a stereotypical old buffer, so going against this actor’s own richly comic manner.

Director Adam Barnard allows the other plays to breathe, even when Press Cuttings mixes political debate with pure comic daftness. Matt Houlihan’s Orderly is seriously comic, getting it in the neck from his superiors and in the eye from outraged (offstage) women, pro- and anti- suffrage, while only seeking firm orders and the chance to use his civilian skill to give his senior officer a haircut.

Houlihan neatly contrasts this rebellious fellow with the philosophically practical O’Flaherty. The central play builds to a fine female confrontation before subsiding as English officer and Irish private sit quietly confidential and identify domestic turmoil as the army’s best recruiting sergeant.

Robert Austin contrasts this astonished officer with his PM avoiding female militancy in disguise, while Jan Carey and Paula Stockbridge offer finely-contrasted examples of the female threat. And Geoff Leesly turns in a splendid curmudgeonly small-town official and an increasingly bemused army supremo.

Augustus Does His Bit
Augustus: Stuart Fox
Clerk: Geoff Leesley
The Lady: Charity Reindorp

Director: Toby Frow

O’Flaherty VC
O’Flaherty: Matt Houlihan
Sir Pearce: Robert Austin
Mrs O’Flaherty: Jan Carey
Teresa: Sarah Manton

Director: Adam Barnard

Press Cuttings
Orderly: Matt Houlihan
General Mitchener: Geoff Leesley
Balsquith: Robert Austin
Mrs Farrell: Jacqueline King
Mrs Banger: Jan Carey
Lady Corinthia: Paula Stockbridge

Director: Adam BArnatd

Designer: William Roberts
Lighting: Leanne Simmonds
Assistant directors: Henry Bell, Helen Leblique
Assistant designer: Robyn Wilson

2006-11-15 00:29:37