Cobbo by Daniel Jamieson. Theatre Alibi. On tour to 11th April 2009.

Cobbo by Daniel Janieson. Theatre Alibi and Exeter Phoenix. National tour until 11th April 2009.

Review Mark Courtice. Salisbury Playhouse 6th March 2009.

Running time 1 hour 15 minutes. No interval.

Flights of Fantasy.

Annie is lonely and the only offer that might change this comes from wet and creepy colleague Iain. In Daniel Jamieson's new play salvation appears in the shape of a swan, who she calls Cobbo. He's a quite different sort of wet, and able to talk to her. His appetities are reassuring; he's hungry for chicken fajitas and Rioja - and Annie.

Annie's immediate attraction to him seems a little less odd when her mother appears to show her the egg from which she herself hatched.

Theatre Alibi like to "stage the unstageable" apparently, and here they do just that on a lovely set by Trina Bramman that reminds of a wing, a feather, and even a surf board. Thomas Johnson's music played live by Nick Baron and Howard Jacobs helps create a world where imagination can thrive. The company manipulate puppets, toss narration between them, and even if they sound a bit "gather round children" as they do it, involve us in this odd story.

But in the end that's all that happens, a rather fey story is told. The characters get no deeper than needed, the music is too often serving the plot, underscoring when there are no other emotional depths, and in 80 minutes we reach a sad little conclusion.

Craig Edwards is clever and engaging as he endows the swan/man with some robustness, but this makes him much more interesting than the other characters. The rest of the company work hard but have little to go on.

Everything in the production (including some projections and a sympathetic lighting design) is done well. It's technically skillful and although the tone chosen is too cute, it is consistent under the direction of Nikki Sved.

Theatre Alibi meet the staging challenge, but don't make the case for the purpose in doing so. It's just a shame that all this hard work isn't devoted to something that goes a bit further.

Annie Jordan Whyte.
Iain Derek Frood.
Ginny/Mum Cerianne Roberts.
Cobbo Craig Edwards.

Percussion Nick Baron.
Saxophone, Bass Clarinet & Persussion Howard Jacobs.

Director: Nikki Sved.
Designer: Trina Bramman.
Lighting: Marcus Bartlett.
Composer/ Musical Director: Thomas Johnson.

2009-03-08 20:38:05