HARRY IN THE MOONLIGHT. To 14 May.

Exeter

HARRY IN THE MOONLIGHT
by Alan Shearer

Northcott Theatre To 14 May 2005
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 14 May 2.30pm
Runs 2hr One interval

TICKETS: 01392 493493
www.northcott-theatre.co.uk
Review: Hazel Brown 29 April

Love and loss caught in the beam of a teenager's scrutiny.Alan Shearer's new play stands or falls by the central performance of Evvy, the teenage girl at the centre of, and secretly observing, a disparate household in 1960's Exeter. Fortunately, Hannah Watkins' outstanding performance as the gawky, precocious and candid girl, assures success.

To make ends meet, Evvy's parents, Monica and Jack, take in lodgers: the two Marys, chambermaids with a fondness for tomatoes with sugar, Colin, a nice but dim amateur boxer, and Harry, an electrician hoping to find love in a ballroom, once he has learned to dance. At the beginning Evvy reflects on her childhood, addressing the audience (as she does throughout), explaining we are about to see a love affair. In fact, the play is a poem to love in its many and varied forms, including the heartbreak of loss. There are repeated references to rain (it certainly did rain in Exeter in 1960) and finally the house is flooded, precipitating this little community's collapse.

Humour and laughter abound, one of the best laughs coming as Harry explains he is going up North to work; in Barnstaple! Steve Bennett is a wonderful Devon dumpling attempting disastrously to find love, to the stifled amusement of Evvy and her family. However, he has the privilege of sending the audience home on a high note.

Jack and Monica, whilst loving towards one another and their daughter, harbour secrets. The two Marys are both looking for love. One thinks she finds it with Colin; the other realises her love cannot speak its name. These are excellent performances from Katharine Fullam and Eva Bartley. Nick Lopez is likeable as Colin, grinning sheepishly when people finish his stumbling sentences, taking forever to realise that one of the Mary's fancies him, yet rushing into the flood to be a hero.

Kit Surrey's set a section through the house revealing the lodgers' rooms upstairs and down with the kitchen/diner (the hub of the house) stage front, allows the audience to see into the lodgers' private lives. Both local and universal, here is an interesting, engaging play on the theme of love, well performed throughout.

Evvy: Hannah Watkins
Monica: Gillian Wright
Jack: David Delve
Colin: Nick Lopez
Harry: Steve Bennett
Mary: Katharine Fullam
Other Mary: Eva Bartley

Director: Ben Crocker
Designer: Kit Surrey
Lighting: Robin Carter
Composer: Duncan Chave
Choreographer: Paula Crutchlow
Dialect Coach: Anne Walsh
Sound: Mic Pool

2005-05-12 23:45:22