LOVE IN THE MIST. To 5 May.
Scarborough
LOVE IN THE MIST
(Intimate Exchanges)
by Alan Ayckbourn
Stephen Joseph Theatre (The Round) In rep to 5 May 2007
7.30pm
Runs 2hr 25min One interval
TICKETS: 01723 370541
www.sjt.uk.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 27 April
Intimate Exchanges plays Off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters 31 May-1 July 2007 www.59e59.org.
A decent, if not outstanding Exchange.
Maybe it’s the supposed sheep that frightens Miles while out on the moors, but this particular Intimate Exchange seems, if not the black-sheep of the family, nor precisely the runt of the litter, possibly the least successful drama. It’s probably because the combination of events that follows from Celia Teasdale’s decision to have a cigarette or not, here results 5 months and 3 scenes later, in the most unlikely combination of characters off on their own.
Leaving the vitriolic Teasdale pair, dyspeptic headteacher and discontented wife behind, it isolates school governor and eternally-dithering decent bloke Miles Coombes with young Sylvie Bell, out of her rut on a walking-weekend he clearly hopes will be the start of something long-term, while she’s merely becoming footsore.
Along with the Tesadales, the plays’ most enigmatic character, groundsman and Sylvie-pursuer Lionel Hepplewick, is also out of the later action. As Miles is never likely to initiate anything much, the Mist scene lacks much comic development.
It’s a version which leaves details unexplained: what is the reason Miles’s compass veers towards one or other of them? What is the source of the dreadful smell that suddenly becomes more extreme as they shelter in the hut they discover on the moors?
Neither as writer nor director does Alan Ayckbourn make Miles’ loss of direction in the descending mist quite credible, perhaps because he’s already known as someone able to lose himself in the middle of any reasonable-length sentence. And the puffs of stage-mist give the scene a half-hearted realism.
Sylvie’s taking off with the much-older Miles is unlikely in the first place. Throughout Intimate Exchanges she’s the most sensible, and perceptive character. The main point is that her romantic fantasy has little chance in reality with the dreamy Miles, while her walking-trip reduces her to teenage sulks when she’s not groping for uncomfortable sex.
There remains Sylvie’s dream of a stay in a smart hotel. But her listing of what such a hotel should offer sounds makes a contrived set-speech, with none of the splenetic logic of Exchanges’ other purple flight, Toby Teasdale’s jeremiad of modern living.
Celia Teasdale/Sylvie Bell: Claudia Elmhirst
Miles Coombes: Bill Champion
Directors Tim Luscombe, Alan Ayckbourn
Designer: Michael Holt
Lighting: Ben Vickers
2007-05-01 16:09:24