POPCORN. To 24 April.
Bolton
POPCORN
by Ben Elton
Octagon Theatre To 24 April 2004
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 10,17 April 2pm
Runs 2hr 5min One interval
TICKETS: 01204 520661
Review: Timothy Ramsden 3 April
A killer play satire and modern comedy-thriller in a knockout production.With its sleek white, black or glass furnishings - just one designer-chair in red - Patrick Connellan's design for the home of killer-thriller moviemaker Bruce catches the shallow, trendy affluence of self-obsessed celluloid folk. Connellan's also taken on direction of Ben Elton's satire/suspense drama, showing a skilled hand at this new role.
In its Oscar-winning, retail exuberant, divorce-settlement-pending world, Popcorn's biggest irony is that the only people who ever talk about anyone apart from themselves are serial Mall Murderers' Wayne and Scout.
They invade their hero Bruce's home with a plan which stretches TV-fixation to its ultimate. Elton skilfully balances (as this production perfectly reflects) tension and laughter and the debate between artistic freedom and social responsibility. One director's free-speech and disclaimed responsibility is two multi-murderers' frame-by-frame crime-fuelling.
Nowadays, with Hollywood violence mingling with war-reports and threats from terrorists once armed by their current targets' governments, Popcorn's more than ever on the boil. But through the initial sex and gun-to-head career diplomacy, and later death-and-gore, there's plenty to show international politics doesn't let media glibness off Elton's hook.
Playing is near immaculate. Sean O' Callaghan's vocal manner is t times over-deliberate but he catches the character's self-certainty and physical assurance. And Connellan might at times have guided Leigh Symonds' murder-man to more varied use of voice in an otherwise fine performance.
As the blood-count rises, the media people look only for personal advantage. This isn't deliberate; self-interest is natural in lives where each is not just an island, but their own world. The killers amazingly become the most sympathetic characters. Wayne and Scout have real affection for each other, though filled with the junk violence that's bought the others' affluence. Symonds stands shorter than O' Callaghan, but there's no doubt who has the authority and not just because of the portable armoury, carried like an electrician's toolbag.
Wayne wins on argument too helped by Symonds' half-smiling, quietly patient performance. And Juliet Goodman's mall moll, swivelling between aw-shucks' vulnerability, smiling low self-esteem sociability and instant violence, someone who sure knows how to select the right TV-derived idea for the moment, is a touchingly fearsome portrayal.
Brooke: Rebecca Blake
Karl/Bill: Alexander Delamere
Scout: Juliette Goodman
Velvet: Viktoria Kay
Bruce: Sean O' Callaghan
Wayne: Leigh Symonds
Farrah: Biddy Wells
Director/Designer: Patrick Connellan
Lighting: James Farncombe
Sound: Andy Smith
Voice/Dialect coach: Heather van Straten
Fight director: John Waller
2004-04-08 12:01:55