DANCING IN MY DREAMS To 11 October.
Tour.
DANCING IN MY DREAMS
by Neil Duffield.
Oxfordshire Theatre Company Tour to 11 October 2009.
Runs 2hr 10min One interval.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 20 June at The Barn Blackbird Leys Oxford.
Drama that doesn’t lose its way, but nor does it strike out any new path.
We’ve grown used to novels stuffed on to stage – there have been decades of multiple settings, lighting changes shuffling us between scenes, the comparative shortness of many of those scenes as the multiple events from a book are hustled into dramatic form. This is more or less how things are in Neil Duffield’s new story of a wartime evacuee. Except that it was never a novel.
If it had been, it would have been ideal for 12-15 year olds. There’s a bit of history, characters clearly divided into the sympathetic and unpleasant, a childhood perspective and adventures that develop away from the rather less fully-drawn adults. Separated in the country from her friend, dancing aficionado Kathleen is subjected to the anti-Irish, anti-Catholic Puritanism and bigotry of “auntie” Freda and her jealous daughter Pamela. Only “uncle” Jack is sympathetic to the forlorn girl, and it’s a sure sign this is a feelgood family show that he doesn’t turn out to have designs on the young visitor.
Duffield pushes us to sympathise with poor, victimised Kathleen so we share her joy when her love of dancing finds an outlet and can scarcely side with sternly judgmental “auntie” Freda when she complains that Kathleen is only concerned with her rag-doll. Since this happens in Freda’s recently bombed house, you can see her point – though Dancing in My Dreams (note the single possessive) doesn’t encourage this.
All this might be fair enough in teenage fiction, at least as it was till recently, but it’s not much for a two-hour play - especially when performances are correspondingly sketchy and two-dimensional. Everyone is efficient and tries hard but all that results are attempts to shake a dramatically somnolent script into life.
There’s some relief in the Fred and Ginger-inspired dance sequences, with a hint of aspirant Busby Berkeley in the routines choreographed by Heather Douglas. But voices here are barely strong enough to carry the swingtime a cappella demanded of them. Laura McEwen’s set accommodates the succession of scenes as Karen Simpson’s production moves efficiently along. But the whole thing is nothing to write home about.
Kathleen O’Neil: Lauren Cocoracchio.
Bridie/Mrs Pemberton/Pamela: Katrina Gibson.
Christina/Freda: Debbie Leigh-Simmons.
Kevin Riley/Jack/Pilot: Jonathan Metcalf.
Miss Jenkins/Gloria/Mrs Butler/Monica: Lois Urwin.
Director: Karen Simpson.
Designer: Laura McEwen.
Lighting: Gary Longfield.
Sound/Musical Director: Andrew Dodge.
Choreographer: Heather Douglas.
2009-06-23 09:20:40