OVERRULED/HOW HE LIED TO HER HUSBAND/VILLAGE WOOING. To 25 November.

Richmond

OVERRULED/HOW HE LIED TO HER HUSBAND/VILLAGE WOOING
by George Bernard Shaw

Orange Tree Theatre In rep to 25 November 2006
18, 20-22 7.30pm Mat 25 Nov 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 35min One interval

TICKETS: 020 8940 3633
www.orangetreetheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 17 November

Humorous battle-lines drawn up between the sexes.
Alongside war, sex. This second trio of one-acters parallels the Orange Tree’s selection of Bernard Shaw’s musings on the Great War with views of the conflict between men and women. Shaw’s ideas are more likely to be provocative in this arena. On war, he headed a recognisable liberal brigade. On human relations, his asceticism recall D H Lawrence’s jibes about sex-in-the-head.

Toby Frow brings a farcical passion to Overruled, where human desires push married orthodoxy aside. His production works neatly given Shaw’s farcically-contrived story, 2 married couples falling for each other’s spouse while on round-the-world voyages in opposite directions from their own. Charity Reindorp’s Mrs Juno’s literally embraced then dropped by Mark Frost’s huge Lunn as he alternates passion and philosophical reflection, while David Antrobus’s Juno provides a neat line in fist-twirling as he offers to engage in fisticuffs with the larger man.

Men’s ability for self-righteousness and women’s practicality mid-desire is nicely expressed, as it is by Paula Stockbridge’s excellently practical Aurora in the brief How He Lied To Her Husband. This frolic naturally mocks Nicholas Gadd’s Henry Upjohn as romantic idealist and a poet who loses his love poems.

Village Wooing has most claims to seriousness, though Paul Shelley gives it as much comic definition as he does the lighter How He Lied. The play, probably the best-known of the 6, is a kind of rural-idyll counterpart to Man and Superman. Stuart Fox’s A doesn’t expound on men’s purpose and women’s drive to divert them into family life as does the longer play’s John Tanner, but he does want a quiet life writing his travel book on shipboard despite Sarah Manton’s talkative Z, then seeks a business relationship in buying-up the post-office where she works.

Home from her once-in-a-lifetime cruise, paid for out of a competition win, Manton’s Z is perkily assertive of her status as telephone operator and employee. For all his splenetic reason, there’s little doubt of the outcome for Fox’s male when faced by this calm and firmly purposeful young woman, played with well-delineated clarity and controlled assurance. A performance, and a performer, to watch.

Overruled
Mrs Juno: Charity Reindorp
Lunn: Mark Frost
Mrs Lunn: Octavia Walters
Juno: David Antrobus

Director: Toby Frow

How He Lied to Her Husband
He: Nicholas Gadd
She: Paula Stockbridge
Husband: Mark Frost

Director: Paul Shelley

Village Wooing
A: Stuart Fox
Z: Sarah Manton

Director: Paul Shelley

Designer: William Roberts
Lighting: Leanne Simmonds
Assistant directors: Henry Bell, Helen Leblique
Assistant designer: Robyn Wilson

2006-11-21 13:10:20