HABEAS CORPUS till 20 September

Exeter

HABEAS CORPUS
by Alan Bennett
Northcott Theatre
Box Office: 01392 493 493493
www.northcott-theatre.co.uk

Runs to Saturday 20 September
Running time 2 hours 25 minutes with one interval

Fantastic farce with more front than Tesco's!
A bare stage, with no more than three chairs and one door, throws all the emphasis on the actors' skills for Alan Bennett's 70's fantastic farce about the body and how it influences relationships young, old, fat, thin, tall short, well endowed or billiard table flat. The cast, under the faultless direction of Ben Crocker, rises to the occasion with relish to create an evening of matchless fun and laughter.

British farce would be nothing without dropped trousers, a lascivious churchman, a repressed spinster, a sexually aggrieved wife, dotty doctors, a beauty, a spotty youth, a grande ex-pat dame, a suicidal patient, misunderstandings and a know-all cleaner. These ingredients are stirred into a comic confection by the brilliance of Bennett's writing and Crocker's direction. The plot revolves around the men's obsession with bosoms and the women's desire to acquire them or to have them appreciated.

Much credit to this fine ensemble cast, all meet the challenge of being the main focus of attention and the audience is sent out into the night laughing and reliving the best bits which includes some witty songs, furious fights creating as much side-splitting laughter as you can take.

Su Elliott, the big hearted, nosy daily leads us through the plot, everywoman-like, introducing us to the Wicksteeds: Granville Saxton, the foiled middle-aged lothario; Lindy Whiteford, his wife, who despite having more front than Tesco's, is sexually deprived, his frumpy sister who desperately wants a bosom, (an inspired portrayal of repressed desire by Charlotte Bicknell); and their hypochondriac weakling of a son, Tat Whalley in an admirably pathetic performance.

CAST
Constance Wicksteed: Charlotte Bicknell
Canon Throbbing: David Birrell
Mr Purdue: Jamie R Bradley
Mrs Swabb: Su Elliott
Felicity Rumpers: Katherine Kingsley
Lady Rumpers: Joanna Monro
Mr Shanks: Robert Rawles
Arthur Wicksteed: Granville Saxton
Dennis Wicksteed: Tat Whalley
Muriel Wicksteed: Lindy Whiteford
Sir Percy Shorter: Nick Wilton

Director: Ben Crocker
Designer: Sara Perks
Lighting Designer: Robin Carter
Choreographer: Kate Everitt
Fight Director: Jonathan Howell
Musical Director: Duncan Chave

2003-09-04 20:40:14