CHARLIE'S TROUSERS. To 27 March.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne

CHARLIE'S TROUSERS
by Alan Plater

Live Theatre To 27 March 2004
Tue-Sat 8pm Sun 4pm Mat 20 March 2pm
BSL Signed 17 March
Runs 2hr 15min One interval

TICKETS: 0191 232 1232
tickets@live.org.uk

Plot might not be up to much, but the dialogue's well worth a trip to Newcastle's quayside.Pub names tell it all The Slipway' became The Frog and Filofax', turned into The Centurion's Arms'. Shipbuilding, yuppiedom, heritage England's north-east all over, in a nutshell. Alan Plater takes a comic nutcracker to the situation, in the wee small closed hours of a Tyneside art gallery (what else is Tyneside regenerated but art galleries, he asks) where a Northern Young Contemporaries' exhibition calls on the past in anything other than oils or watercolours.

Plot and character development are hardly Plater's bag. What he does wonderfully is wry northern observation, sidelong looking at modern life, in a style perfectly tuned to the Tyneside voice of common sense from the shoved-about crowd.

It makes its sharp points in the intensely funny scenes between security guard Kev, coolly assessing whatever life throws at him, and intruder Nev, there for a heist of he knows not what nature, recognition of the bloke he recognises from schooldays ineptly revealing his identity from behind his burglar's balaclava.

Joe Caffrey catches the no-hoper delinquent, while Trevor Fox is side-splittingly funny watchful, assessing, puncturing Nev's enthusiastic idiocies. You could listen to these two spouting Plater dialogue till the last rib gives out.

The downside arrives with the female characters. Neither's blessed with the blokes' coolly comical lines, and both carry the burden (it is one here) of such plot as exists. Judi Earl manages well enough in the least likely, most under-developed role as a woman vicar along for the ride.

But director Max Roberts, whose approach is otherwise spot-on, keeping the laughter going while giving the humour time to breathe, should have directed Helen Coker's vengeful lover-artist towards the comic spirit. Her performance might suit a pacy plot-driven drama. But there's little comic timing or awareness. And her insistent facial reactions all the nodding, eye-contact agreement make the laughs leak away.

At least Roberts might have stopped her from smiling so much in encouragement of the others: onstage smiles kill audience laughter. Luckily, the first act's largely, the second to a considerable extent, given over to what Plater does best, and there the production's faultless.

Kev: Trevor Fox
Nev: Joe Caffrey
Bev: Helen Coker
Rev: Judi Earl

Director: Max Roberts
Designer: Imogen Cloet
Lighting: Malcolm Rippeth

2004-03-18 07:50:06