FULL HOUSE/THE HAIRLESS DIVA. To 4 May.

Watford

FULL HOUSE and THE HAIRLESS DIVA
by John Mortimer by Eugene Ionesco, translated by John Mortimer

Palace Theatre To 4 May 2002
Mon-Thur 7.45 Fri-Sat 8pm Mats 20,27 April 3pm 1 May 2.30pm
Runs 2hr One interval

TICKETS 01923 225671
Review Timothy Ramsden 17 April

A new guise for Ionesco's founding father of an Absurdist comedy, yoked to the mother of a new companion piece.A new translation of Eugene Ionesco's 1950s Absurdist comedy of suburban English routine La Cancatrice Chauve (previously Englished as The Bald Prima Donna) is timely – whatever that means, given the Smiths' erratic clock with its eccentric whirrs and wheezes, which at times in Kate Sinclair's production govern the rhythms of conversation.

Between them, Mortimer and Sinclair find a sexual substrata which has you wondering about Richard Braine's precise relationship as Mr Smith with the family comprised entirely of Bobby Watsons. And changing Mary from a Maid to a 'woman who does' replaces one of Ionesco's fantasies about suburban English life with something closer to reality.

Mortimer's translation increases the emotional range – the final dissolution of language becomes a violent quarrel eventually breaking into physical aggression – fitting our 50-years on idea of suburban existence as a lot stranger than it was considered in the fifties.

Some lines remain truculently unplayable. Anny Toibin's well-acted Mary manages, with a sweep of a magnifying glass, to make her exit-line about being known as Sherlock Holmes passable. Another lame line is the one giving the play its title. It has no meaning or context, and it goes for nothing here.

There are several sharp performances, though Helen Lederer needs reining back on her mannerisms and verbal distortions; this dialogue (originating in the formality of language-learning recordings) benefits from precision, not exaggeration. And Sinclair could surely position Kish Sharma's Fireman less awkwardly to talk to the others; though the production has some speeches delivered out front, this remains a conversation piece.

It's a pity too the neat closing idea, putting these people back under wraps, is restricted by the Palace's technical limitations. Ti Green's set, with its clashing colours and patches on the walls where pictures and mirrors used to be, is witty. In a different guise the room serves for Mortimer's new companion piece.

Full House picks up ideas from Ionesco in its story of mistaken identity. The chief mistake is identifying the piece as worth staging. It receives the performances it deserves - you'd not believe Kennedy, Braine and McErlane could give their far stronger Diva showings. Best draw a veil over this dispiriting curtain-raiser.

Susan/Mrs Martin: Helen Lederer
Sam/Mr Martin: Gordon Kennedy
Cheery O'Leary/Mary: Anny Tobin
Chloe/Mrs Smith: Maria McErlane
Tim/Mr Smith: Richard Braine
Owner of Corner Shop/Chief Fireman: Kish Sharma

Director: Kate Sinclair
Designer: Ti Green
Lighting: Neil Austin
Sound: Marcel Gussmann

2002-04-18 08:23:16