CHAPTER TWO. To 14 April.
Manchester
CHAPTER TWO
by Neil Simon
Library Theatre To 14 April 2007
Mon-Thu 7.30pm Fri-Sat 8pm Mat Thu & Sat 3pm no performance 9 April
Audio-described 12 April 7.30pm 14 April 3pm
BSL Signed 5 April 7.30pm
Captioned 10 April
Pre-show Talk before 27 March 31 March 3pm
Runs 2hr 45min One interval
TICKETS: 0161 236 7110
www.librarytheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 23 March
A Manchester treat; laughter-flecked seriousness finely directed with a pair of well-matched performances.
Neither Stephen Marzella nor Jennifer Lee Jellicose are household names – except, doubtless, in their own homes. Which goes to show the advantage of a repertory theatre with a director who knows what he’s doing. And Roger Haines has shown at Manchester that he knows about doing Neil Simon.
So, for its first UK non-London outing this 1977 romantic comedy rejoices in 2 superb performances and emerges without any strain from star-billing. The result’s as perfectly balanced an acting double as could be imagined.
Neither bereaved novelist George nor TV actress Jennie are in the first-flush of spring-chickendom; he’s 43, she a good decade younger. Both have emotional bruises from past relationships, he because of a perfect wife’s death, she from 5 out of 6 years’ unhappy marriage.
Simon’s characters always wear a public face; their language and behaviour are those of people who behave as though the door’s always open and someone might come in. What they say keeps a self-conscious smartness. Nevertheless his plastic peoples’ universe offers a sympathetic representation of sad and exalted states. George and Jennie are an upmarket, less anonymous version of Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnnie in the Clair de Lune, more apt at articulating feelings.
For both it’s second love at first sight. Or better, at first hearing, so things move straight to personality. Jellicose’s happy laughter at his initial serial ‘phoning expresses a woman whose capacity for life is reawakening. The physical intimacy, her clambering onto his sofa, later shows utter joy in the new relationship.
Marzella shows something similar as he’s surprised by the joy he thought had ended for him. It’s a more cerebral and self-observing emotion – he’s older, and a writer. This makes for a contrast of temperament reflected in Judith Croft’s design, showing his darker-coloured room against the brightness of her apartment.
It’s almost a pity there has to be anyone else. Pippa Hinchley fills-in neatly enough as Jennie’s actress-friend looking for a temporary fling, though Gregory Gudgeon’s Leo is overly stiff in manner. But it’s Marzella and Jellicose, winding through triumphs and tribulations, who shine in Haines’ impeccable production.
George: Stephen Marzella
Leo: Gregory Gudgeon
Jennie: Jennifer Lee Jellicose
Faye: Pippa Hinchley
Director: Roger Haines
Designer: Judith Croft
Lighting: Nick Richings
Sound: Paul Gregory
Dialect coach: Sally Hague
Dance: Geoff Steer
2007-03-26 10:43:04