LOVE'S LAST SHIFT. To 19 April.

London.

LOVE’S LAST SHIFT
by Colley Cibber.

White Bear Theatre Club 138 Kennington Park Road SE11 4DJ To 19 April.
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Sun 5pm.
Runs 2hr 35min One interval.

TICKETS: 020 7793 9193.
www.whitebeartheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 28 March.

Lively revival of a hitherto unrevived comedy.
How far can you go in a play? In this 1695 comedy, young Colley Cibber travels between two centuries. The opening conversation between returned, but not reformed rake, Loveless, who is concerned far less with his wife’s supposed death than with getting money for his next meal, suggests the callousness of the Restoration Comedy (there’s an allusion back to Etherege’s She Would if She Could) which was about to provoke Jeremy Taylor’s attack on the English stage’s immorality and profaneness.

There’s a standard Restoration fop too, Sir Novelty Fashion, a glossy celeb-culture victim of his day. But he’s excluded from the happy end where virtue’s rewarded and vice thinks again. This is partly engineered by young Worthy, but also by a Confederacy of women. It’s this trio (plus a forceful lady and equally determined servant strongly doubled by Rosy Langlands) which marks-out the play, and this first revival within a lot longer than living memory, by Mr Hart’s Theatrical Company

Amanda is the faithful wife of the worthless Loveless. As the play’s moral centre, it must be morality that makes her stick with her promiscuous, self-impoverished husband. If Goldsmith’s Kate Hardcastle stooped to conquer, Amanda stoops lower, rouging herself up as a town tart to give her husband sexual pleasure before reminding him she’s the wife he’s clearly forgotten.

But, then, this was the 17th century, and Jennifer Masters invests Amanda with a sense of deeply-involved love. In contrast, Anneka Haskins’ Hillaria shows a shrewd and calculating command of her situation – perhaps a little over-consciously, but such a character in White Bear-like intimacy will come across strongly and Haskins has clear technical command of the role.

So, it becomes increasingly clear, does Tori Hart as the well-named Narcissa, a performance whose self-concern insinuates itself in a comic progress through the action.

Isaac Jones has his fop’s measure, and though there could be more refinement to performances, in tone and phrasing (there are several unconvincing emphases), there’s more than enough to enjoy, given that Mr Hart’s people have unearthed an intriguing example of drama turning from the heartless to the sentimental.

Loveless: Ben Lee.
Snap: Dominic Rouse.
Younger Worthy: Matthew Butler.
Elder Worthy: Daniel Curshen.
Hillaria: Anneka Haskins.
Amanda: Jennifer Masters.
Narcissa: Tori Hart.
Sir Novelty Fashion: Isaac Jones.
Sir William Wisewoud: Hayward Morse.
Flareit/Miss Anne: Rosy Langlands.
Sly/Lawyer: John Fitzpatrick.

Directors: Matthew Butler, Dominic Rouse.
Designer: Wendy Muir Hart.
Lighting: David Alcorta.
Costume: Hazel Low.

2009-03-31 12:37:13