ENJOY.
London.
ENJOY
by Alan Bennett.
Gielgud Theatre.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed & Sat 2.30pm.
Runs 2hr 40min One interval.
TICKETS: 0844 482 5130.
www.enjoytheplay.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 8 September at Oxford Playhouse.
Moving wild laughter in the throat of human decay.
Though neither the clothes nor the household implements Alison Steadman sports in publicity for this revival of Alan Bennett’s 1980 play appear on stage, it’s cause for enjoyment that Christopher Luscombe has again directed it following a deserved success in 2007 at Watford Palace.
Touring from Bath Theatre Royal’s 2008 Peter Hall season, the production retains three 2007 cast members and the production team, apart from Paul Pyant’s lighting replacing that of Colin Grenfell. The central casting is certainly a commercial upgrade on Watford. Yet Sue Wallace and John Arthur were excellent as the old pair in one of Leeds’ last back-to-back terrace houses, their lives scheduled for transformation into a heritage attraction.
David Troughton’s plate-in-head curmudgeon is almost too obvious casting. Until the second act (for much of which he is comatose) his heavy-mannered dad, trouser zip ever-open in domestic dishabille, is merely an unvarying angry northerner. As his daughter, who’s lived up to so less than he expected of her, Josie Walker seems more unvaryingly raucous than at Watford.
Enjoy is full of laughter over elderly decay, bodily functions and lavatories (a sure sign the writing’s on the wall, as Alan Bennett once said). Connie’s short-term memory is going; Alison Steadman is intensely comic just because she shades laughter with a sense of reality about coping with decline. There may be a less perfect balance than with Wallace and Arthur but Steadman’s is a luminous performance. Few performers can match her.
Fortunately Carol Macready, reprising the “tower of strength” neighbour, is one. The scene between Steadman and Macready is hilarious, partly owing to Bennett’s farcical business and his Pinter-like precision, pinpointing the precise word that produces comic resonance. But also to the playing, never exploiting a point: Connie concerned for her husband, Macready glazing her northern vowels with a dusting of polite refinement, judging the apt degree of shock at what she discovers in the magazine rack.
Elsewhere, playing is rather flat. Yet there’s plenty to enjoy, especially in Bennett’s second act, which is less prone to set-piece wit and melancholy. It’s here Luscombe’s bright revival resplendently shines.
Wilfred Craven: David Troughton.
Connie Craven: Alison Steadman.
Ms Craig: Richard Glaves.
Linda Craven: Josie Walker.
Heritage: Mark Killeen.
Anthony: Peter McGovern.
Gregory: Julian Pindar.
Mrs Clegg: Carol Macready.
Adrian: John Gould.
Sid: Chris McCalphy.
Harman: Jake Ferretti.
Charles: James Parker.
Rowland: John Duffer.
Director: Christopher Luscombe.
Designer: Janet Bird.
Lighting: Paul Pyant.
Sound: Jason Barnes.
Musical Director: Michael Haslam.
Choreographer: Jenny Arnold.
Dialect coach: Martin McKellan.
Fight director: Malcolm Ransom.
Assistant director: Sarah Norman.
2008-09-10 00:34:16