QUEEN'S ENGLISH. To 26 November.

Watford

QUEEN’S ENGLISH
by Vanessa Brooks

Palace Theatre To 26 November 2005
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Wed 2.30pm & Sat 3pm
Audio-described 26 Nov 3pm
Post-show discussion: 15 Nov
Runs 2hr 10min One interval

TICKETS: 01923 225671
www.watfordtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 9 November

A clear theme and some fine jokes along the way, but unclear where it’s all going.
She is. The Queen. English. The Queen is English – Queen’s English. Like, ‘Queen’s English’, meaning proper words properly spoken, by middle-class London standards. The title’s a joke - a pun – see?

Not that the Queen’s middle-class. No, she’s upper class. And the English can teach the world about class. It’s the subject for the show-lesson when the monarch visits the United School of English. The USE, which is a bit like USA. For, like most English things these days, it’s run by a brash American. In this case, Ruby.

She won it off an Earl (The English, very careless of their heritage) in a card-game. So the ancestral Hertfordshire mansion is now partitioned, CCTV-ed and supplied with a Coca-Cola machine.

For English, by the way, read British. There’s an Englishman, Scotsman, Welshman and Irishman. Irish woman actually. And the Welsh one’s Black. And gay - and very depressed about containing so much of the world’s victimhood. Ruby doesn’t sympathise much, being a New York Jew. From (wait for it) Queen’s.

The Englishman, Irishman, Scotman and Welshman joke-format opens the play, returning with more serious, autobiographical variations later. And Brooks provides some wicked one-liners. Less happy is the would-be farcical plot which, like so many such, becomes incredible without the logic-powered necessity that creates hilarity. Ridiculous stereotype costumes aren’t enough. Nor is a lot of ill-motivated, illogically-timed running around.

Welsh David has a fine speech on love, and there’s a mix of paean and elegy for English itself – a “beautiful, expansive, enviable” language. But the individuality emerging through the British/Irish stereotypes – Bridie’s bio-time clock, English George’s mix of romantic nostalgia and pedantic concern for detail – have limited space amid the frantic plotting.

It’s unfortunate for Marilyn Cutts that Ruby’s the most cardboard character, straight from TV comedy. Cutts is a strong performer who makes everything possible of Ruby; she’s especially good at maintaining the feisty and avoiding the mawkish in her few quieter moments. Good work from others too, but actors and directors have a tough time when characters speak or act for momentary advantage rather than within a coherent narrative.

Jim: Martin Ledwith
Bridie: Annie Farr
David: Jotham Annan
George: Daniel Hill
Ruby: Marilyn Cutts
With: Alison Adams, Johna Ash, Melanie Howe, Zoe Robertson

Directors: Lawrence Till, Joyce Branagh
Designer: Richard Foxton
Lighting: Jon Driscoll
Voice coach: Jeannette Nelson
Assistant director: Anthony Biggs

2005-11-10 10:22:28