HUMBLE BOY. To 16 October.
Exeter
HUMBLE BOY
by Charlotte Jones
Northcott Theatre To 16 October 2004
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 16 Oct 2.30pm
Audio-described 14 Oct
Post-show talk 13 Oct
Running time 2hr 15min One interval
TICKETS: 01392 493493
www.northcott-theatre.co.uk
Review Hazel Brown 30 September 2004
Laughter galore in modern tragi-comedy of family life.Laughter abounds in this modern take on family life in the Cotswolds that improbably combines black holes, bee-keeping and string theory with strong echoes of Hamlet.
Following the death of his bee-keeping father, Felix Humble returns home from his astro-physical studies at university to discover that his mother, Flora, is planning to marry her neighbour, George Pye. Michael Matus looks suitably down at heel as the hapless Felix, inappropriately dressed in cricket gear for the funeral. In the play's first scene, Felix witnesses his father's hive of bees being removed. His stammer (very like that assumed by Derek Jacobi as Claudius - as in I Claudius, not Hamlet) has also returned, much to his mother's irritation.
Sandra Duncan sweeps onto the stage as this dragon of a mother, determined to hold onto her youth and pursue a life of pleasure she feels has been denied her. Mercy Lott, her timid side-kick, is played with trembling gentility by Barbara Ewing, and earns a well-deserved ovation for her hilarious aria of pain and disappointment at the engagement party. Michael J Jackson is in fine form as the vulgar neighbour, with his love of big band swing, boozing and dancing, while his daughter, Rosie, is a larger than life, forthright and bawdy nurse who has loved Felix for years. Finally, there is a quiet and patient gardener, who, until the end, only appears in scenes with Felix.
The play is liberally peppered with modern scientific thought, from descriptions of black holes to an explanation of string theory. The staging echoes this, its garden background consisting of lines of string from floor to flies.
There is one anachronism all the gardeners in this Exeter audience seized upon there is no way a tree would be decked in full-grown apples in mid-summer. However, these do provide a comic moment when Felix recalls how, as a child inspired by Newton, he sat under an apple tree for eight hours to watch an apple fall, only to be called in for tea by his mother and returning later, to find three apples on the floor. As the scene closes, an apple falls.
This delightful, whimsical and thought-provoking play richly deserves, and is well served by, this Northcott revival.
Felix Humble: Michael Matus
Mercy Lott: Barbara Ewing
Flora Humble: Sandra Duncan
Jim: Dave Sim
George Pye: Dave Sym
Rosie Pye: Tabitha Wady
Director: Kate Saxon
Designer: Kit Surrey
Lighting: Chris Davey
Sound/Music: Howard Davidson
Musical Director: Paul McClure
Fight Director: Kate Waters
2004-10-05 01:45:52