GOOD THINGS. To 27 November.
St Andrews/Perth
GOOD THINGS
by Liz Lochhead
Byre Theatre St Andrews To 6 November
then Perth Theatre 11-27 November 2004
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 30min One interval
TICKETS: 01334 475000 (Byre)
01738 621031 (Perth)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 30 October
Simplistic feelgood comedy keeps audiences happy.Borderline Theatre ends its Scottish tour of Liz Lochhead's new Romantic Farce' with extended runs at St Andrews and Perth. The writer's programme note claims this company touches parts other companies cannot, or cannot be bothered, reaching but this script occupies a well-known area. For Romantic Farce' read sitcom and soap.
The sitcom's warm-hearted but garishly obvious in its attempts to be funny, while the sitcom's trite and built round matchstick characters. As such, the show has, of course, been packing them in and sending them home happy in droves. And no-one should call a full-house in St Andrews unsophisticated. Borderline have clearly hit on the same formula that keeps Hull Truck popular and prolific in England, despite repeated critical knocks.
Good Things is set in a charity shop where Susan seeks to keep alive her faith and hope in finding love as she deepens into middle-age. The obvious bloke comes in with a charitable donation, and wouldn't you know, he's conveniently bereaved. In fact they are neighbours. And made for each other, Susan's self-deprecating humour a perfect complement to the ponderously sentimental coping that besets both Lochhead's principal males (the other is charity shopworker Frazer).
Molly Innes meanwhile ploughs energetically through several dynamic women, including a determined regular customer searching out bargains, the figure-of-fun pretentious shop manager and the briefly-seen hate-figure of Susan's ex's new flame.
Such work may be fun for a high-quality actor like Innes. It uses only a fraction of her range. For Borderline have like Hull Truck again assembled a strong cast who play with a will through the dutiful doubling and plastic sentiments. But that's to look for dramatic qualities, lead perhaps by Lochhead's own comments, that don't seek to feature here.
She has written a script, and Maureen Beattie directed a production, that has enough plot and character to provide an evening that at least shows cynicism and harshness aren't the only means available in modern drama, nor the best way to win the hearts of a lot of theatregoers. Which can't be altogether a bad thing.
Susan: Annette Staines
David: Vincent Friell
Doris and others: Molly Innes
Frazer and others: Kenneth Bryans
Director: Maureen Beattie
Designer: Finlay McLay
Lighting: Simon Wilkinson
2004-11-04 08:18:03