LODGERS. To 25 September.
London
LODGERS
by Alastair Trevill
White Bear Theatre To 25 September 2005
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Sun 4pm
Runs 2hr One interval
TICKETS: 020 7793 9193
Review: Timothy Ramsden 17 September
Cheers, Friends here's the White Bear in most lovable, huggable mode.No wonder Alastair Trevill, as caustic estate agent Marcus, sits in front of the communal TV, mouth agape with crushed breakfast cereal, disgusted at the latest re-run of Friends. It lets Trevill, as writer, shove his retaliation in first that this story of house-sharing 20+-somethings in London is a take off the tele. Trevill has as much wit of his own as Marcus (though he's not averse to nicking other people's supplies) and his script shows a constant comic skill.
The short-scene structure suggests this might take him into TV scripting. Yet, with work on comic construction, Trevill could fill a place as theatre's comic commentator now occupied only by Alan Ayckbourn. And Trevill, who has a sense of explosive character combinations, speaks from a newer generation. Maybe a stage commission from Scarborough wouldn't go amiss.
Admittedly, material here could point to a sitcom pilot, with plenty of storylines implied in events when Canadian Sean, drying-out and taking up employment again, joins the assembly in tidiness-crazed control-freak Taz's house. Besides Marcus and Hugh, the academic he loves to annoy, there's Hugh's long-term sex-only-after-we're-married fiancée Abby. Contrasting their tightly suffocating relationship is Marcus' with Kitty, a coupling so loose it's talked-about rather than seen. Though as Abby would say, it can't be looser than Kitty's lifestyle.
The cast in Trix Worrell's production play beautifully when the momentum's going. Alexandra Little has a fine-pointed, light-voiced dominating manner, smiles her substitute for authority, while Emma Nettleton's Kitty forges ahead fuelled by anger or frustration, as Katherine Bennett-Fox's Abby finds her ladylike poise ever more uncertain.
Dominic Cazenove's Hugh could do with a less spineless element it would be funnier to see someone less obviously a victim under the thumbs of Abby and Marcus. But Matthew Baunsgard's Sean plays a satisfying long, patient game before rising against Taz's domestic tyranny. And Trevill's written himself the peach of a part as heading-for-a-fall Marcus.
It's when the comic gear shifts that pacing can go awry, with phrases undersold. But it's rare the small change of shared occupation has given rise to such large laughter as here.
Taz: Alexandra Little
Sean: Matthew Baunsgard
Marcus: Alastair Trevill
Hugh: Dominic Cazenove
Kitty: Emma Nettleton
Abby: Katharine Bennett-Fox
Director: Trix Worrell
Designer: Kevin Sawyer
Lighting: Mary Pope
Sound: Steve Lavers, Shovell
Costume: Emma Nettleton
2005-09-18 09:25:06