LEND ME A TENOR. To 15 October.

Pitlochry

LEND ME A TENOR
by Ken Ludwig

Pitlochry Festival Theatre In rep to 15 October 2004
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat Wed & Sat 2pm
Runs 2hr 25min One interval

TICKETS: 01796 484626
www.pitlochry.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 August

Splendid production with first-rate performances in solid, second-rate farce.Never trust a farce with an historical setting. The genre works as a look at society, or a part thereof, going steadily, then giddily, mad. Past times are times of which we make sense or about which we can feel safely superior.

Yet Ken Ludwig almost brings it off. Writing a good second-rate farce isn't easy. Ludwig's plot develops logically (if without the remorseless inevitability of which the best farces consist) with plenty of ingenious incidents, character types we can recognise and an outcome cleverly delayed and longed-for by audiences.

So this 1986 play, set in a glam hotel suite where a star operatic tenor is about to stay while gracing a provincial opera company's gala, has a lot that's impressive. All it lacks are the maniacal sense of a world gone absolutely mad - it's too good-naturedly sentimental for that - and a probe beyond stereotypes into the pretentious parts of the world of opera.

It would be hard to imagine a finer revival than Pitlochry's. Benjamin Twist's beautifully-paced production shows a company each member of which is working at their best. They seem to revel in their roles and the crazy, hair-let-down whirl of it all. Not a foot, not a toe, nor even a toenail, is put wrong.

The eyes have it, alright, repeatedly expressing amazement, confusion, fury, desire. None more so than with Jonathan Battersby's impresario Saunders, the bully who shouts at sidekickMax (unrecognised vocal talent meekly waiting in the plot wings) when things go wrong. When his famous tenor doesn't turn up, then apparantly becomes terminally unavailable, Battersby's eyes seem to expand their orbit as his body gesticulates panic in a sustained fit which extends hilariously over two acts.

Both as himself and in the role events force on him, Matthew Lloyd Davies's Max has a willingness and warmth that put the audience on his side, while Samuel James' keeps his opera-star wannabe Bellop the right side - just - of overnight camp.

The women's roles are generally less grateful. They play far less of a part in the action, often brought in to help the men reach new lengths of awkwardness or fury. But they're acted to the hilt, be it Helen Logan's wife with her Meditteranean jealousy, Francesca Dymond's boss's daughter who wants to be sure her man is a man before he becomes her man, or Angela McGowan's ambitious opera vamp.

Coming on late in the action, Janet Michael is superb, attaining maximum impact with restraint and without a hint of cliche, as the opera company's patroness, blithely unaware of the mounting chaos around her (this in period, Marxist terms, is the Margaret Dumont role). There again, as Pitlochry regulars know, she always is superb.

Add Ken Harrison's magnificent luxury-hotel designs, lovely to look at and ready for any plot requirement the action can throw up, and the stage is literally set for a Pitlochry winner.

Max: Matthew Lloyd Davies
Maggie: Francesca Dymond
Saunders: Jonathan Battersby
Tito Morelli: Jonathan Dryden Taylor
Maria: Helen Logan
Bellhop: Samuel James
Diana: Angela McGowan
Julia: Janet Michael

Director: Benjamin Twist
Designer/Costume: Ken Harrison
Ighting: Mark Pritchard
Accent coach: Lynn Bains
Voice coach: Alex Gillon

2004-08-19 12:14:11