HABEAS CORPUS. To 15 October.
Pitlochry.
HABEAS CORPUS
by Alan Bennett.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre In rep to 15 October 2008.
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat 3, 20, 25 Sept, 15 Oct 2pm.
Runs 2hr 15min One interval.
TICKETS: 01796 484626.
www.pitlochry.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 22 August.
Less body and soul than solely the body.
This is a portrait of a different world, yet one that’s recognisably ours. As Lady Rumpers obtrudes on stage with barking complaints about an England down the plughole from the land she left to rule the Raj, or characters observe what they reckon must be the permissive society, a past England is made evident. Typically, for Bennett, sexual gratification and permissive joys remain a mystery to the family of Brighton General Practitioner Arthur Wicksteed.
Arthur wastes an afternoon awaiting an unfulfilled rendezvous, time stretching to the point where, in a symbol of decaying Britain, the end of the pier slides away. Bodies, described by Arthur with sordid disgust, still itch, desire provoking middle-aging Connie to prosthetic enhancement, while the fitter for the mail-order falsies finds himself debagged and drugged as he mistakes female after female for his company’s client.
Even Our Finest Hour is reduced to a fumble under a table in blackout Liverpool, its consequences still alive and well in 1973. And death hovers around these packaged human carcases, while shame and seediness are the frame to vital impulses and urges. Ben Twist’s production plays the piece with the smooth gloss and high colour of the seaside-postcard world beneath which Bennett probes the human function.
Two characters drive both the play’s farcical pace and the reserved English manner which contrasts inward impulses and desires. Dougal Lee’s Arthur has an excellent turn-on-a-sixpence manner; barely a muscle moves or an eyebrow twitches as his confident medical authority covers yet another piece of self-interested mendacity.
Richard Addison follows the author, who took over the role from Patricia Hayes in the London premier, as a drag Mrs Swabb. Like Arthur, she comments to the audience, but with the forthright and knowing way of a cleaner who’s seen and understood what’s going on in all the corners and underneath the carpet.
Others follow where Lee and Addison lead, with pace and the kind of performance where apparent utter seriousness transfers humour to the audience, where it belongs. It makes for a strong evening, moving wild laughter in the face of human and social decline.
Arthur Wicksteed: Dougal Lee.
Muriel Wicksteed: Karen Davies.
Dennis Wicksteed: Christian Edwards.
Constance Wicksteed: Luisa Prosser.
Mrs Swabb: Richard Addison.
Canon Throbbing: Richard Stemp.
Lady Rumpers: Jacqueline Dutoit.
Felicity Rumpers: Esther McAuley.
Mr Shanks: Jonathan Coote.
Sir Percy Shorter: Robin Harvey Edwards.
Mr Purdue: Grant O’Rourke.
Director: Ben Twist.
Designer/Costume: Ken Harrison.
Lighting: Ace McCarron.
Music: John Scrimger.
Choreographer: Chris Wilson.
Fight director: Raymond Short.
2008-09-03 03:14:19