Full Circle by Alan Melville, Hippodrome, Birmingham, 5th - 10th April
Tour
FULL CIRCLE
by Alan Melville, adapted from Les Enfants d'Edouard by Marc-Gilbert Sauvajon and Frederick Jackson.
Triumph Entertainments and Churchill Theatre, Bromley at The Hippodrome Birmingham To 10 April 2004 then tour (pre-London?).
Runs 2 hours: one interval:
Review: Jan Pick 5 April 2004
The equivalent of Easy Listening' for theatre-goers.
Impeccably performed, as might be expected from this cast, Alan Melville's Full Circle is a mildly amusing play with a mid-century period charm of its own. It was as if the Hippodrome was a strange type of Tardis landing its audience somewhere in the Fifties to see the type of play an angry John Osborne might have thought he'd buried forever! As the audience emerged into the night afterwards it was a slight relief to find that we were back in the twenty-first century.
Set in the Parisienne living room of author Denise Darvel (Joan Collins), it is beautifully designed by Hugh Durrant and expertly directed by Patrick Garland, with a hint of artificiality which subtly acknowledged its roots in the Boulevard' genre without descending into pastiche.
Joan Collins, indisputably the centre of the piece around whom the other actors revolve, displays an unerring sense of stage presence, twinkling starrily although the applause which greeted her first entrance was an unnecessary irritant.
Jeffry Wickham, in a whimsical but sterling performance as the doctor and faithful friend, and Denise's former lovers - John Quayle, suitably pompous as the upper class bore with a stubborn streak, Nickolas Grace, thoroughly enjoying himself as a stereotypical mad Polish musician and Gary Raymond as the strong, smoulderingly sinister Dominique - make the most of their roles.
This trio, each an unwitting father, is ably balanced by Daniel Roberts, Jessica Robinson and Giles Cooper as their illegitimate offspring who need one of their mother's former lovers to become their legal father to make them acceptable in the marriage stakes.
I can understand why this play was popular in its time but its central premise no longer shocks, reducing its impact; the cast have to work very hard for the rather obvious jokes and predictable ending to make any impact. To their credit they do, providing a pleasant, if unchallenging, evening.
Denise Darvel: Joan Collins
Marthe: Sheila Bernette
Edward: Jeffry Wickham
Walter: Daniel Roberts
Bruno: Giles Cooper
Martine: Jessica Robinson
Sir Michael Anstruther: John Quayle
Jan Letzaresco: Nikolas Grace
Dominique Lecler: Gary Raymond
Madame Duchemin: Judith Hepburn
Lucienne: Emily Woodward
Jean-Pierre: Brian Lonsdale
Director: Patrick Garland
Designer: Hugh Durrant
Lighting: Mick Hughes
Sound: Crispian Covell
Composer: Simon Mulligan
2004-04-08 11:16:13