BROADS, BOURBON, BULLETS AND BETRAYAL by R.W. Sherwood. White Bear Theatre Club.

London

BROADS, BOURBON, BULLETS, AND BETRAYAL
by Robert William Sherwood

Shot and Chaser Theatre Company at The White Bear Theatre To 4 November 2001
Runs 1hr 30min No interval

TICKETS 020 7793 9193
Review Timothy Ramsden 21 October

Nightmare in Kennington as cop goes off the rails in Sherwood's intricate drama.There are many London Fringe Theatres in rooms above pubs. The White Bear is not one. It's a room behind a pub, in Kennington Park Road, a couple of sixes from the Oval cricket ground. Its reputation is part built on promoting London-based Canadian playwright Sherwood.

The B-Play as it's called for short, visits old noir B-movie crime and passion land, mixing in a shot of John Fowles' novel The Magus where a character sets out on firm ground only to end up finding his whole world's in a conspiracy against him.

Jack, an undercover cop given sputtering conviction by Kerry Shale, finds his wife Carol, an assured Barbara Barnes, walking out on him because of his infidelity with Imogen Walker's Janice. It's all in the line of business, as Janice is moll to the criminal Vince (Robert Ashe). Except he really loves her, though not when guns get pointed. Which is the point; of the four B-words in the full title, it's the last this play's really about.

Pastiching noir plots is tough enough. Doing so to some purpose and making it stick's a truly tricky business, one which Sherwood brings off with panache. When Carol turns up as a lesbian Ms Big of the drugs world, with Janice on her knee, the opening marital relationship is recreated in business terms, while her making Jack sharpen pencils during a meeting with Vince not only prevents him overhearing her deals, but reinforces his humiliation, with a Freudian kick thrown in.

Ashe is the cheery enforcer, a big smile and a hug thrown in with his threats and warnings. Walker provides the human vulnerability, though she's able to switch in a moment to the tough exterior needed to survive in this world. The noir world, that is, or indeed, our world.

Director Ned Cox keeps the balance of probability hanging between comedy and tension. Do your paranoia a favour; check out the back room at the White Bear.

Vince: Robert Ashe
Carol: Barbara Barnes
Jack: Kerry Shale
Janice: Imogen Walker

Director/Sound: Ned Cox
Designer/Costumes: Michael Taylor
Lighting: Adam Crosthwaite

2001-10-22 16:56:13