MISS YESTERDAY. To 8 January.

Scarborough

MISS YESTERDAY
by Alan Ayckbourn

Stephen Joseph Theatre (The Round) To 8 January 2005
Mon-Sat 7pm Mat 31 Dec 8 Jan 2.30pm no performance 23-26 Dec 1 Jan no 7pm performance 31 Dec
Audio-described 6 Jan
BSL Signed 7 Jan
Runs 1hr 45min One interval

TICKETS: 01723 370541
Review: Timothy Ramsden 17 December

This is Ayckbourn at his most happily optimistic.Alan Ayckbourn's theatrical inventions have included time travel before, but here it's linked less with discovery than choice. The result is exhilaratingly optimistic, even if the action doesn't answer every moral question it raises.

No dramatic genre has done more to examine questions than Theatre in Education, and there are times Miss Yesterday seems like a superior TIE script. Elsewhere it luxuriates in the comedy and characterisation of a young people's entertainment.

This being Ayckbourn, the teenage characters are very middle-class and ultimately well-adjusted; there's little Tammy Laidlaw has to fret over, other than the ghastly good taste décor of her Doctor father and Counsellor mother's house. Her school's gates look like those of a private establishment. The action opens there as Tammy and friend Roz attempt a night-time break-in to sneak a look at exam papers for which they've done precious little preparation.

The indirect result is the death of Tammy's talented older brother. Then Tammy's given the chance to unwind her actions. But the moral point doesn't change, merely the modus operandi, leading to an outcome that's short-term good. Long-term it would be large-scale tragic, so, via a further time-twist, her brother's sacrificed for the greater good.

To make the reversals more pointed, Ayckbourn involves Tammy in the fate of millions through an out-of-time stranger with the power to turn time's arrow, someone whose identity is only finally revealed.

The role gives Susan Twist something more to play than a stereotypical policewoman and she infuses her brief appearances with telling sympathy and depth. That apart, it's Tammy's play and Laura Doddington's vibrant energy confirms the skill she showed in last summer's lunchtime one-acters at Scarborough. The rest of the cast are fine and it's no doubt Ayckbourn's drawing-power that actors like Saskia Butler, Eileen Battye and Philip York have come to Scarborough for their nugatory roles.

Clues emerging during the action are wrapped-up in a final image montage; Ayckbourn's generated enough interest to get away with such a sketched-in conclusion. For this is ultimately another Ayckbourn Christmas play to give the term family entertainment a good name.

Tammy Laidlaw: Laura Doddington
Roz Butcher: Saskia Butler
Andrew Laidlaw: Philip York
Josie Laidlaw: Eileen Battye
Ian Laidlaw: Ryan Early
Carol Winterbrush/The Stranger: Susan Twist
Security Guard/PC Ratch: Simon Chapman

Director: Alan Ayckbourn
Designer: Pip Leckenby
Lighting: Ben Vickers
Music: John Pattison
Costume: Christine Wall

2004-12-25 18:28:13