COMIC POTENTIAL. To 29 June.
St Andrews
COMIC POTENTIAL
by Alan Ayckbourn
Byre Theatre To 29 June 2002
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat Sat 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 35min One interval
TICKETS 01334 475000
Review Timothy Ramsden 22 June
Much more than a routine revival, this Byre show casts new light on a fantasy adventure-comedy.Ayckbourn's comedies have been done to so many repertory deaths, mangled into mannerisms and hectored with comic crudity, that it's good to find a considered production that sees one of them from a fresh angle, proving there's life – not mere existence – for these plays outside their Scarborough birthplace.
It's a mere four years since the play's premiere, but already the idea of cliched soaps presented by actoids – thespian androids – seems only too realistic a dumbing-down. Then, in this world of mechanical actors, life's sparked when Jacie Triplethree - a female robot – unaccountably starts acting spontaneously.
At Scarborough, where humanity amid technology and officialdom always brings out the romantic optimist in Ayckbourn, Jacie was played by Janie Dee, whose stage personality emphasised the character's fun and affection.
In the first half, set in the studio, Nicola Keen's Jacie seems more limited, more mechanical (as a character that is, not as a performance). After the interval, eloping with the TV mogul's son, her individuality develops - along with reminders of her inner mechanics; there's an hilarious moment when her waste disposal needs seeing to in public.
But a steely structure has advantages – grappling with Graham Crammond's fearsome pimp, Turkey, for example. And, while Keen shows the comedy of Jacie's Eliza Doolittle-like state - just as Eliza talks old vocabulary in new tones, Jacie relates every situation to her only memories, of soap-like melodrama – she also shows a joy in realising she's an autonomous individual.
This is Ayckbourn's main point – the assertion of individual feelings in contrast to corporate auto-reflexes and self-aggrandisement. Jacie injects new energy into Adam, whose communications supremo father can no longer be bothered to speak for himself but has his words transfused through a hireling.
The more Ayckbourn writes about non-humans and sets plays in other times and worlds, the more surely he's speaking up for humanity, here and now. In Rita Henderson's understanding production, with a sure-footed central cast (there's some rougher playing round the edges), and helped by the theatrical flourishes of Ayckbourn's regular composer, John Pattison, wild comedy and warm feeling are upliftingly, unsentimentally joyous.
Lester Trainsmith/Hotel Desk Clerk/Hotel Waiter 1: Richard Addison
Doctor/Farmer/Man in Dress Shop/Turkey: Graham Crammond
Carla Pepperbloom: Valerie Cutko
Trudi Floote/Girl in Dress Shop: Susie Dumbreck
Adam Trainsmith: Dominic Gray
Son/Marmion/Hotel Waiter 2/Technician: John Paul Hurley
Jacie Triplethree: Nicola Keen
Chandler Tate: Edmund Kente
Prim Spring: Claire Knight
Mother/Farmer's Wife/Dress Shop Assistant/Prostitute: Sophia Wylie
Director: Rita Henderson
Designer: Karen Tennent
Lighting: Mike Browen
Sound: Barry Young
Music: John Pattison
2002-06-25 00:39:01