'Billy Liar': Tour.

Coventry

Billy Liar: by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall:
Middle Ground Theatre Company
www.middlegroundtheatre.co.uk
Touring
Runs: 2h, 30m: two intervals: till 6th June
Start: 7.45
Review: Jan Pick 2.6.09 (Belgrade, Coventry)

Oh what a tangled web we weave…….!
‘Billy Liar’ is a classic. The novel, written by Keith Waterhouse in the early 1960s, and adapted into a very successful play by Waterhouse and Willis Hall, follows a day in the life of Billy Fisher, a grammar school educated boy from a working class family in the Industrial North. Billy spends most of his time fantasising and his talent for self dramatisation and attempts to add colour to his somewhat boring existence lead him into escalating troubles with his parents and various assorted girlfriends. In an odd echo of Chekhov’s ‘Three Sisters” and their endless dreams of Moscow, Billy also dreams hopelessly of a life of fame and fortune in London.

This is a worthily solid production by the Middle Ground Theatre Company, which occasionally sputters into excellence. There is a well-judged performance from Sally Sanders as Grandma, and Lauren Drummond’s Barbara, one of Billy’s two fiancées is a nightmare of prim dreariness with her endless supply of oranges produced in effective defence of virtue whenever Billy’s straying hands approach.

The set is good, the lighting and music appropriate, there is a feisty performance from Victoria Hawkins as Rita, the other fiancée in Billy’s life, and Holly Quin-Ankrah makes an appealing Liz, his true love. All the ingredients are there – Nathan Hannan is convincing as Billy Liar and his fantasy moments cleverly and wittily done. None of the actors gives a bad performance.

Yet somehow the production fails to sparkle, losing its momentum with intervals between each act, which, with no obvious purpose, also makes for an unnecessarily long evening.

Florence Boothroyd: Sally Sanders
Alice Fisher: Judith Street
Geoffrey Fisher: Dicken Ashworth
Billy Fisher: Nathan Hannan
Arthur Crabtree: Adam Henderson Scott
Barbara: Lauren Drummond
Rita: Victoria Hawkins
Liz: Holly Quin-Ankrah

Director and Designer: Michael Lunney
Production Manager: Mat Larkin
Technical Company Stage Manager: Jeremy Barnaby
DSM: James Morley
ASMs: Janey Lawson/Marc Antolin
Music and Sound Effects: Mat Larkin
Lighting Design: Bob Hodges
Costume Design: Michael Lunney
Trumpet Solo: Marcus Fernando

2009-06-10 10:47:21