MINCE? In rep to 20 July
Dundee
MINCE?
by Forbes Masson
Dundee Rep 18-20 July 2002
7.45pm Mat 20 July 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 20min One interval
TICKETS 01382 223530
Review Timothy Ramsden 29 June
More fun than can reasonably be expected from a tin, with moments of piquant flavouring too.We've seen the play-within-a-play; here's the play-within-a-brain. Specifically, the mashed-up mind of successful advertising jingle-writer Donald Johnstone, a simultaneously cool and crumpled Rodney Matthew.
When mad-cookie psychotherapist Jessica Craig (Irene Macdougall, bringing her usual technical confidence and vocal richness to a role that bats her in free-flight between crazed scientist, hair-let-down wild-night woman and shocked normality) uses her novel antennae and fishy silicon chip technology to tune into his mind, she finds – below the inevitable layers of naked blondes – a plate of mince.
McKinnon's Tinned Mince, to be precise: subject of Donald's latest award-winning jingle. McKinnon – a goonishly grinning and ultimately sinister John Ramage stamping his comic brand on a minor role in a way that illustrates how Dundee's acting ensemble can benefit a play – is unaware that Johnstone's also got his teeth – or tongue – into the meat-man's girl.
Meg Fraser is gloriously comic as this vocally uncontrolled abattoir worker transmogrified into a Marilyn Monroe lookalike(ish) for a new campaign, in which an infatuated Donald seeks to ensure the jingling doesn't have to stop.
Forbes Masson directs his script and songs with confident impertinence. The plain, white clinical cube of Tom Piper's set in which doctor and patient meet, opens at a slant to admit the psycho-performance that begins in Donald's head nightly at 7.45 (except on Sundays, but matinees Wednesday and Saturday). It even schedules its own, never quite 15 minute, interval.
Masson's main achievement lies in corralling a range of moods into a coherent whole, from the sketch-like satire of a media prize night to the unsentimental realism of the Johnstone parents – fine work from Ann Louise Ross and Sandy Neilson, as the father descending into his own mental stew of dementia.
Only time will tell if Mince? can cut the mustard in the modern classic Scottish repertory. Meanwhile, without displacing the classic comic scene of mince and tatties (the story of Mr Culfeathers in Tony Roper's The Steamie) this is a delicious addition to the theatrical menu.
Donald Johnstone: Rodney Matthew
Dr Jessica Craig: Irene Macdougall
Kenneth McKinnon: John Ramage
Struan Oates: Keith Fleming
Hunter Cunningham: Billy Mack
Lorraine Lamont: Emily Winter
Myrna McKay/Spirit of Alice: Frances Thorburn
Candi8ce Carruthers/Nurse Alexandra Kerr: Susan Harrison
Alice Johnstone: Ann Louise Ross
George Johnstone: Sandy Neilson
Rhona boak: Meg Fraser
Dr Michael Scott: Alexander West
Rev Ronnie McKinnon: Robert Paterson
Spirit of George: Andrew Clark
Inner Swinger musicians: Melanie Marcus, Anne-Marie Murray, George Drennan, Fletcher Mather, Nigel Dunn, Gordon Dougall, Sebrof Nassam
Director: Forbes Masson
Designer: Tom Piper
Lighting: Richard Moffatt
Text/video Inserts: Finn den Hertog, Lewis den Hertog
Musical Director/Arranger/Assistant Director: Gordon Dougall
Choreographer: Suzannah West
2002-07-04 10:47:27