LIFE-COACH. To 14 June.
London.
LIFE-COACH
by Nick Reed.
Trafalgar Studios (Studio 2) To 14 June 2008.
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Thu & Sat 3pm.
Runs 1hr 25min No interval.
TICKETS: 0870 060 6632.
www.theambassadors.com/trafalgarstudios (transaction fee).
Review: Timothy Ramsden 29 May.
Tea, sympathy and laughs along the way.
This play won’t change your life, though it has that effect on half its characters. But it’s a neatly entertaining piece, long enough to have substance without becoming tedious. That’s thanks to a well-structured script where comedy grabs attention, then is judiciously mixed with serious content. It’s also thanks to two central, very different, performances.
Phill Jupitus plays life-coach Colin in Nick Reed’s play. He doesn’t act the part so much as present a comedy routine in character. The delivery has a comedian’s hallmarks, while Reed has concocted a reason for Colin to seem to talk directly to the audience, creating a stand-up scenario. But Jupitus is funny, in delivery and the gestures that comment on what’s being said; all in a cool, dry manner of apparent unconcern.
Wisely he, and Reed, leave the acting to Amy Darcy as scatty-seeming secretary Wendy. But Wendy, though unable to send an email on time, or content herself with scheduling her boss only one appointment at once, isn’t scatty. She’s utterly demoralised by life and can list little beyond making a good cup of tea (not so insignificant an achievement at times) to her credit.
Darcy and Jupitus are hilarious as he begins the hopeless-seeming job of instilling self-confidence into this office mouse. But she’s sharp enough to latch on to the self-interest in his bothering with her and is soon criticising him, clearly a first for the life-coach.
His theory proves disastrous in practice until the root of the problem’s reached. It’s at this central point Reed switches-off the comedy for Wendy’s introspective speech of self-discovery, which Darcy handles with a skill that points the difference between acting and performance.
She’s convincing too in Wendy’s changes to voice and manner as Wendy, having finally sorted her own problem out, becomes influential on Colin. If only she doesn’t lose those tea-making skills in the process.
With apt work from Katerina Olsson as a stressed-out boss and Tim Plester as Wendy's parasitic partner, the play, decently directed by its author, makes no great statement, but provides enough laughter and sympathy to please almost anyone.
Colin: Phill Jupitus.
Fiona: Katerina Olsson.
Wendy: Amy Darcy.
Alex: Tim Plester.
Director: Nick Reed.
Designer: Jason Denvir.
Lighting: Mike Robertson.
Sound: Anthony Lynch.
2008-05-30 12:51:39