CHARLIE AND HENRY. To 27 May.

London

CHARLIE AND HENRY
by Peter Maddock

New End Theatre 27 New End Hampstead NW3 1JD To 27 May 2007
Tues-Sat 7.30pm. Mat Sun 3.30pm
Runs 2hrs One interval

TICKETS: 0870 033 2733
Review: Rachel Zedner 28 April 2007

Good centre, but the play leaves you wanting less
When Noel Coward saw Bonnie Langford in Gone with the Wind at Drury Lane, he famously quipped they should “cut the second act and the child’s throat.” An unkind critic might think of a similar suggestion for Peter Maddock’s first play.

The characters in this drug-fuelled Sloaney drama are unpleasant and old-fashioned and the writer, whilst having an interesting life as a high-flying music lawyer, drug smuggler and convict, has created a monster that leaves us wanting less. Director Jason Lawson’s strong pedigree (Hayley Mills, Twiggy and Sir John Mills in the family) doesn’t mean everything he touches turns to gold.

The play, billed as a comedy, fails to get laughs. It’s all aristocratic parodies and a ridiculous cockney-rhyming chauffeur. The effects of taking heroin are rendered similar to consuming a tasty bar of good dark chocolate – perhaps Lawson didn’t see Trainspotting, or chose to de-emphasise the extreme unpleasant side-effects.

Jacqueline Wood’s Cara flounders like a drag queen without a cause. Alice Henley’s understated Annette Croissant has always wanted to meet film star Cara Coleman, yet one day later, asked to accompany Cara to a film premier, her muted reaction is, “I’ll have to ask my fiancée.”

Gregory Finnegan’s one-dimensional Charlie cries out for exploration of his alter ego, the Inferno Club visitor who likes to be beaten by male partners. Sadly, the script forbids him to visit this dark side.

Wesley Theobald’s Darrell Day is completely inappropriate for a modern day setting. No one under 30 in London has a cockney accent any more and no one under 95 uses cockney rhyming slang.

The set looks good, reminiscent of a Belgravia balcony-room, and the performances overall are nearly as good as the piece allows. Writing in his New York prison cell, Maddock clearly feels it necessary to shoehorn as many themes as possible into Charley and Henry: drug-taking, homosexuality, incest, SAS embassy-storming, suicide, aristocracy, class divides, drug smuggling, sado-masochism to name but a lot.

The skeleton of a good play is there, but a drastic rewrite and fresh direction are needed to bring out a comedy worth viewing.

Charlie Morning Star: Gregory Finnegan
Henrietta Morningstar: Sophia Dawnay
Cara Coleman: Jacqueline Wood
Darrell Day: Wesley Theobold
Annette Croissant: Alice Henley
Mervyn Woolf: Liam Smith

Writer: Peter Maddock
Director: Jason Lawson
Assistant: Director Blanche McIntyre
Set Design: Lotte Collett
Lighting Design: David W Kidd
Costume Design: Mia Flodquist
DSM Tomoko: Matsumoto
Sound Design:Music Peter Jordan

2007-05-13 11:48:12