PERFECT DAYS. To 30 April.

Oldham

PERFECT DAYS
by Liz Lochhead

Coliseum Theatre To 30 April 2005
Tue-Thu;Sat 7.30pm Fri 8pm Mat Sat 2.30pm & 27 April 2pm
Audio-described 28 April
BSL Signed 20 April
Post-show discussion 26 April
Pre-show workshop 27 April 11am + 2pm show
Runs 2hr 40min One interval

TICKETS: 0161 624 2829
www.coliseum.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 April

Well-played, good fun but working best as individual scenes.A woman at the top of her trade, one birthday card off 40. Pause for breath and she hears the bio-clock ticking fit to bust. The alarm goes off in her head. That's Barbs Marshall, co-owner of stylish hair-fashioning business Razor City, its name adapting Glasgow's old repute to the new, Miles Better cappuccino culture.

Liz Lochhead's comedy was a 1998 Edinburgh Fringe hit, the Traverse Theatre discouraging people from even coming to apply for a place in the returns queue so besieged was their box-office daily on opening. A Scottish tour was inevitable but borders can be hard things to cross and the show had only a moderate success later, in London.

Oldham's revival is quite successful, but quite curious too. While the women are Scottish through-and-through the two men who're supposed to be equally Glaswegian sound less comfortable with the accent and phrasing. They're forgivable. Andrew Pollard's Brendan especially, one of Barb's barbers who goes as far as a gay man can to help her become a mother. Pollard pulls back from making his camp a queer pitch and the relationship, based on liking and respect, works beautifully.

As does each scene. What Iqbal Khan's revival lacks is a sense of an overall architecture to the play. He catches the contrasting act conclusions; the final joy counters Barbs' pre-interval loneliness and defeat. But that first act is a series of encounters, each scene bringing Barbs into contact with another character. They come over as one-offs, with limited sense of Barbs' central urge to maternity.

There's an intrusive jokiness at times, which either Lochhead or Khan cannot resist a huge syringe, a naked man cavorting unnecessarily (despite it being in his interest to stay concealed) behind a translucent screen when someone calls unannounced on Barbs.

Yet there's a fine, feisty performance from Caroline Paterson, coping with her mother (Anne Kidd, tactful with a potential figure of fun) and her unawareness of today's designer scene, her friend's son (Emma D' Inverno doing a fine turn as the friend), an ex-husband and her own midlife amidst it all.

Alice: Emma D'Inverno
Grant: Michael Imerson
Sadie: Anne Kidd
Barbs: Caroline Paterson
Brendan: Andrew Pollard
Davie: Leigh Symonds

Director: Iqbal Khan
Designer: Dawn Allsopp
Lighting: Phil Davies
Sound: Daniel Ogden

2005-04-17 13:54:13