COACH, BENCH till 4 April
Birmingham
COACH: Sheahan, BENCH: David Hendon
Old Joint Stock: Birmingham (200 0946; oldjointstocktheatre@fullers.co.uk)
Runs: 1h 55m, one interval, 29 March, 3 and 4 April 2007
Review: Rod Dungate, 29 March
Thought provoking debuts
These two short plays form a thought-provoking double bill.
The first concerns Terry - he’s a bit of a failure and pours his energy into a local football team. We learn that the team (under 13s) is about to play in a regional final. Terry, though, feels the need for success more strongly than the boys in the team. Hence his problem.
Sheahan unfolds the story well and Terry, in Martin Copland-Gray’s performance, is a larger-than-life bully. Copland-Gray fills out the character and brings in some useful comedy. Caroline Nash, Marge – Terry’s wife, creates a sympathetic character, you sense her long-suffering nature in this restrained performance.
I should have liked to have seen another side, a lighter side, of Terry’s character; otherwise you wonder why his wife has stuck it so long. It would enable Copland-Gray to play a wider range, sometimes in a quieter fashion. Terry would appear more three dimensional and all the more intriguing.
Copland-Gray shows some pleasing quieter moments in the second play, BENCH, as Frank. In this play, James, stressed by work and domestic issues, is depressed and in danger of harming himself. He meets, by chance, Frank; the two of them strike up regular lunch-time chats; James is released from his isolation by the connection he makes with the ever-joking Frank. But nothing is as simple as it seems on the surface.
Tom Mason plays James, his tenseness providing a telling contrast with Copland-Gray’s intriguing humour.
Hendon provides some sharp dialogue; he should look carefully at his last scene though. After the denouement he goes on to make explicit what is already implicit in the play; it’s not advisable.
Ian Craddock directs the two pieces with a sure hand. The two plays are welcome contributions to this Birmingham pub theatre which is just beginning to get going. The Old Joint Stock should provide a much needed venue for new writing.
COACH
Terry: Martin Copland-Gray
Sadie: Susannah Hallcroft
Marge: Caroline Nash
Lynn: Susannah Hallcroft
Mark: Tom Mason
BENCH
James: Tom Mason
Frank: Martin Copland-Gray
Director: Ian Craddock
2007-03-30 10:56:35