PRESENT LAUGHTER. To 27 April.
Colchester
PRESENT LAUGHTER
by Noel Coward
Mercury Theatre To 27 April 2002
7.30 Mat 27 April 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 40min One interval
TICKETS 01206 573948
Review Timothy Ramsden 23 April
If you don't think Coward's view of the personal and professional menage of an inter-World War matinee idol has classic status when you go in, you will by the end of this magnificent production.Director Janice Dunn is respectfully independent-minded about Coward's comedy. Gregory Floy's Garry Essendine offers echoes of Coward in voice, phrase and stance, but it's no pastiche. The emotions are real, and he has a wonderful way of sliding out of any situation when his amour propre needs attention.
Floy uses the various levels of Sarah Burton's set, with its doors built into the walls suggested by huge black and white portraits of Garry. (All it needs is a real mirror.) His Essendine loses no opportunity to take a stand on his grand piano's platform, or to fly half-up the staircase to pronounce his feelings in capitals. His face reacts quickly to those around.
Though Essendine is self-centred, Floy is always an ensemble member. He's matched by Christine Absalom's private secretary, meeting visitors with a formal smile to ward off outsiders, and her employer with resigned resilience – apart from rare moments when concern for him darts through.
The Essendine household has a louche, theatrical quality, excellently shown in Janette Legge's gloomily mystic Scandinavian cleaner and Tim Treslove's chirrupy servant. No one, including the great man, is a hero to him, whistling his merry way, or off to see his ladyfriend in her sort-of nightclub.
This is a world where just about everyone acts. Biddy Wells' Joanna makes appearances as a sophisticated siren, sandwiching between them the morning-after look of a vamp on the verge of ageing. Clare Humphrey's besotted debutante rightly focuses on teenage earnestness, delighting in secret knowledge between her and 'Mr Essendine'. Only Paul Humpoletz's businessman with one foot firm in non-theatrical territory has a measured sanity.
And Liz Crowther's admirably tactful ex-wife stands back, effectively writing the scenario for the others around Garry. Her face remains controlled - unlike aspirant avant-gardist Roland Maule. Justin Grattan leads by a mile with his chin and develops a sinister dimension as a post-Misery No 1 fan.
By having both feet firmly planted on the ground rather than its head in cloudy notions of a Coward style, Dunn and her uniformly excellent cast raise the piece to fine, and thoughtful, comic heights.
Monica Reed: Christine Absalom
Morris Dixon: Ignatius Anthony
Liz Essendine: Liz Crowther
Garry Essendine: Gregory Floy
Roland Maule: Justin Grattan
Daphne Stillington: Clare Humphrey
Henry Lyppiatt: Paul Humpoletz
Miss Erikson/Lady Saltburn: Janette Legge
Fred: Tim Treslove
Joanna Lyppiatt: Biddy Wells
Director: Janice Dunn
Designer: Sarah Burton
Lighting: Mark Doubleday
2002-04-25 11:30:31