ONE LAST CARD TRICK. To 18 March.
Watford
ONE LAST CARD TRICK
by Stewart Permutt
Palace Theatre To 18 March 2006-03-08 Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Wed 2.30pm Sat 3pm
Audio-described 18 March 3pm
Captioned 16 March
Post-show discussion 14 March
Runs 2hr 15min One interval
TICKETS: 01923 225671
www.watfordtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 8 March
Dream-team performers immured in formulaic comedy.
There’s a real-life origin to this story of 3 elderly women who meet in a Soho synagogue basement to play cards, with a 4th, younger one, hanging subserviently on. The Soho synagogue, like the one in the play, was sold-off for secular purposes, though for a different sort of entertainment than playwright Stewart Permutt supposes.
But that’s where the link with real (or dramatic) life ends. This is formulaic writing of a kind that gets the second-rate a bad name. And Permutt’s lacklustre boulevard sitcom isn’t helped by a halting production that ends in a gratuitous schmaltz of smoke and mirrorball. Stranded with a broken-backed script, given little sense of direction from the 3-man posse out front, where can the actors go?
A special shame as Watford has a smashing cast. Worst affected is Avril Elgar’s Hetty, with her barbed criticisms of everyone else. Permutt does give her some good anecdotes; just when a proper lady saying filthy words seems the sole tack, their humour takes new directions.
But what a contrived character Hetty is. You know she’s going to have a sad side. And she does. Then Permutt chucks in encroaching senility. Once mentioned, it soaks her with monsoon intensity, before acquiring a tidal tendency to ebb and flow according to the writer’s needs.
Debra Penny makes put-upon young Loretta lively and sympathetic. Once, Gillian Hanna’s presence in a play about a protest sit-in would have meant political theatre. No more; Permutt lets the situation’s possibilities dribble away into more of the same marshmallow inaction. Hanna’s best moments are outside the dialogue; a puzzled, short-sighted squint at her hand of cards; the sudden close look at the tie on a loaf of bread.
Amanda Boxer, as the elegant, cultured Magda is unquenchable, adding depth to the tritest lines and making a lovely moment of escaping awkwardly through a window in her gladdest rags.
Some people laughed. Some showed an interest in events. Goodness knows why; you’ll need to ask them for a recommendation, unless you can endure sitting through cardboard and goo to catch a handful of cracking punchlines.
Magda: Amanda Boxer
Hetty: Avril Elgar
Sophie: Gillian Hanna
Loretta: Debra Penny
Directors: Lawrence Till, Stefan Escreet
Designer: Martin Johns
Lighting: Matthew Eagland
Musical Director: Ian Scleater
Choreographer: Lorelei Lynn
Assistant director: Anthony Biggs
2006-03-10 01:55:06