EVERYBODY LOVES A WINNER To 1 August.
Manchester.
EVERYBODY LOVES A WINNER
by Neil Bartlett.
Royal Exchange Theatre To 1 August 2009.
Mon-Fri 7.30pm Sat 8pm Mat Wed 23.0pm Sat 4pm.
Audio-described 18 July 4pm (+Touch Tour and large-print programme).
BSL Signed 1 Aug 4pm.
Post-show discussion 16 July.
Runs 2hr 35min One interval.
TICKETS: 0161 833 9833.
www.royalexchange.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 13 July.
Living and partly living with eyes right down.
No loving sculpturing from spotlights here. Overhead strip-lights create a baleful semi-bright uniformity, exposing the formica-topped tables and cheap seats (a couple broken-backed and taped-up) of Rex’s, an all-day bingo hall where the local, predominantly female, untermensch congregate to see them through the day.
Old and semi-continent, youthful and still hopeful, or lost mid-life in this random-number womb, they are sad members of an informal society, making up for failures in the larger world. We’re superior to them. Aren’t we?
Doubt’s cast on that by the time Neil Barlett (who co-conceived this show with Music Director Simon Beacon and Movement Director Struan Leslie) has taken us through a three-session day, from morning informality to the uniformed evening, where stakes are as high as the management permit. Tonight’s top-prize is £200. Not life-changing, but offering someone a brief reprieve from financial struggles.
By morning’s end, with its break for tea or a bowl of chips from the neon-signed Café, we’re starting to learn the rules. At first, these seem alien as the religious rites of an unfamiliar church. Which is Bartlett’s central metaphor, as Miriam Buether’s set elevates the bingo-caller in a pulpit, staff members burst into song and the players become a chorus with their hymns and repeated Credos.
During the interval bingo-cards are on sale for 50p. And yes, one audience member nightly goes home £200 to the good. Moral qualities attach themselves to money and to winning. So applause breaks out when someone’s lucky, while anyone making a mis-call is assumed to want to sneak home in shame. Audience eyes are down as avidly as the characters’ when they have a stake in the outcome.
This is the false yet comforting society of a shared addiction and Bartlett includes us in his world as new punters from the start. Disenchanted workers who can switch-on brightness in a flash and scrupulously acted denizens of the Call give the piece an eerily vivid life. But by the second act, the metaphor’s worn through, and the lure of the line exceeds it: the play, that is, gives way to the game.
Debbie: Emily Alexander.
Maureen: Sally Bankes.
Kathy: Judith Barker.
Shirley-Ann Porter: Anita Booth.
Ryan: Paul-Ryan Carberry.
Janice: Patti Clare.
Hayley: Nicky Goldie.
Gemma: Emma Hartley-Miller.
Jay: Amanda Henderson.
Brigid: Liz Hume-Dawson.
Elsie: Joan Kempson.
Linda Chappell: Sally Lindsay.
Mandy: Sue McCormick.
Denise: Sherry Ormerod.
Frank: Ian Puleston-Davies.
Keith Porter: Eamonn Riley.
Joe: Warren Sollars.
Lesley: Susan Twist.
Peggy Johnson: Sue Wallace.
Pauline: Flo Wilson.
Director: Neil Bartlett.
Designer: Miriam Buether.
Lighting: Chris Davey.
Sound: Steve Brown.
Music Director: Simon Deacon.
Movement: Struan Leslie.
Dialect coach: Charmian Hoare.
Assistant director: Rania Jumaily.
2009-07-17 09:30:40