GOING TO THE CHAPEL. To 29 November.
Salisbury
GOING TO THE CHAPEL
by Mike Akers
Salberg Studio, Salisbury Playhouse To 29 November 2003
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat 22,27 3pm
Post Show Talk: 25 November
Theatre Day 27 November 11.20am+show 3pm
Runs: 1hr 45min No interval
Frolics and misery down on the farm in a well-written, beautifully performed new play.Mike Akers' new play runs against Michael Frayn's Copenhagen in Salisbury's main house. Doubtless Frayn and his play are better-known. No doubt they're major theatre players. But I wonder how many of the audience coming out confused from the main-stage production might not have had a better time with this mix of comedy and tense drama.
Roger Law manages the failing family farm actually willed to brother Don, who's making his own fortune out of software in the US. Dragged back by his brother's marriage (to which the play's title refers), Don and his partner Lois find themselves up to the neck in unexpected circumstances.
There's surface laughter for the first part (Akers has a two-act structure, here played straight through) but the play has a couple of violent moments, one linked to money, the other to sex, and the mood darkens as deceptions and illusions seep out. Rich or poor, sexual dissatisfaction affects the central quartet Robert Beck's reserve firefighter, who diversifies into hen-night cavortings, goes around with a blissful smile and seems the only contented character.
Akers mixes comic moments with a hostage story leading to death's door. His denouement is a theatrical cheat glossing over dramatic improbability of the In one leap Jack was free' variety. And Caroline Leslie's production might have helped Pippa Hinchley's agoraphobic Brenda suggest slightly more the fires deep within her puritanical persona.
But Hinchley plays her character's repression beautifully, defensively aggressive in tone and expression. Josephine Butler makes clear the self-discontent of an affluent life flowing nowhere, while Adam Morris, strong as the complacent Don, does his best with the last-straight character conversion Akers demands.
Beck makes Morris, somewhat on the dramatic sidelines, seem a natural occurrence in his scenes, while Ken Bradshaw, in an outstanding portrayal that fuels the play's development, gives keen plausibility to a character whose mire of business non-acumen encourages his stranger ideas.
Kit Surrey provides an atmospheric twin-location set, on which Leslie finds apt expression both for comedy and tension. Maybe not an instant classic, but worth catching during this premiere run.
Brenda Law: Pippa Hinchley
Roger Law: Ken Bradshaw
Lois Benton: Josephine Butler
Don Law: Adam Morris
Morris McAfferty: Robert Beck
Director: Caroline Leslie
Designer: Kit Surrey
Lighting: Kevin Scott
Sound: Gina Hills
Dialect coach: Julia Wilson Dixon
Choreography: Ben Occhpinti
2003-11-17 12:47:03