MAN OF THE MOMENT. To 18 October.
Pitlochry
MAN OF THE MOMENT
by Alan Ayckbourn
Pitlochry Festival Theatre In rep to 18 October 2006
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat 16, 31 Aug, 9 Sept, 4, 12, 18 Oct 2pm
Runs 2hr 50min One interval
TICKETS: 01796 484626
www.pitlochry.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 12 August
Ayckbourn revival goes swimmingly.
The good news from Scarborough is that Alan Ayckbourn's recovered from a stroke this spring. How much more than a run-of-the-boulevard dramatist he is appears in Pitlochry's excellent revival of this fine 1988 comedy. If there's any quibble, it's that Ken Harrison's split-level patio set for TV star Vic Parks' Spanish home suggests more than the bog-standard villa it's claimed to be.
The only reason there isn't the customary round-of-applause for the design is that it's only fully revealed once Helen Logan's carreerist TV presenter Jill Rillington hasa begune her to-camera speech. The sudden snapping-on of the full lights neatly suggests television's falsity and the over-brilliant profile it can bring into lves. Aykbourn probes human values and behaviour while criticising TV without any suggestion of chacracters or situation undergoing media manipulation onstage.
He also, artfully, makes his media star Vic, co-subject of aspirant programme-maker Rillingtron's attention, someone with a violent past. It's still present, fuelling his on-camera bonhomie and the intimidatory treatment of employees. Ayckbourn contrasts him with a rare example of a dull man made interesting, disproving Jill's denunciation of the contented as impossible to make interesting.
Benjamin Twist's production's helped here by Richard Addison's acute performance, his ex-bank-clerk turned window-salesman Douglas making comedy out of inability to perform the simplest action without 'acting' when a camera's pointed his way, and looking comically puzzled or engrossed in what's going on around him. Again, Addison's pure candour is hilarious as his answers dumbfound his interviewer's media-world assumptions. Jill's explosion over his sexual contentment is as funny as in Scarborough 18 years ago.
Or nearly as funny, because Twist's one misjudgment is allowing Logan to focus on Jill's false-smile and voice, underplaying the pain with which Lynette Edwards originally coloured the part. But Jonathan Battersby is splendid as Vic, and Jacqueline Dutoit as the wife who's the only person in his entourage daring to speak up to him. The local servants who adore their famous boss because they can't understand him are fine, while as the Yorkshire lass humiliated for fatness, Amy Ewbank makes up in evident hurt what she lacks in girth by comparison witrh the role's creator.
Throughout, Ayckbourn undermines easy moral assumptions; Jill's TV programme investigates a 25-year old incident where Douglas seemed a hero and Vic the villain. Vic's attempts to downplay his role are purely comic, but there's colder truth in Douglas's critique of his have-a-go action.
All this, and laughs along the way. A masterly play in a splendid revival.
Jill Rillington: Helen Logan
Trudy Parks: Jacqueline Dutoit
Kenny Collins: Matthew Lloyd Davies
Ruy: Ronnie Simon
Douglas Beechey: Richard Addison
Vic Parks: Jonathan Battersby
Cindy Parks: Caroline McPherson/Vesile Aycan/Phoebe Anderson/Cara MacLellan
Sharon Giffin: Amy Ewbank
Marta: Karen Davies
Ashlery Barnes: Anthony Glennon
Director: Benjamin Twist
Designer: Ken Harrison
Lighting: Ace McCarron
Sound: Ronnie McConnell
Costume: Anya Glinski
Fight director: Raymond Short
2006-08-14 12:24:46