ROOKERY NOOK. To 13 August.
Tour
ROOKERY NOOK
by Ben Travers
Oxford Stage Company Tour to 13 August 2005
Runs 2hr 15min Two intervals
Review: Timothy Ramsden 19 July at Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds
They might not write em like this any more, but they can sure revive 'em.1926 wasn't a happy year, what with Rudolph Valentino, Harry Houdini and Claude Monet kicking their respective buckets and labour relations so bad even the army was affected: there was a General strike. Agatha Christie went missing for 11 days. And it was the last year oxen ploughed for England. Times were changing old boy, not half.
None of this would have been noticed by Harold Twine, the silly-ass in Ben Travers' roaraway farce at the Aldwych Theatre (long before those RSC johnnies got their classical hands on the old place). Richard Henders is as silly an ass as could be desired. His nerves don't just twitch, they fizz and crackle as he scratches his ear or cheek, devours his straw-boater or any handkerchief unfortunate enough to come within range of his mouth.
Of course, he's terrified of his wife Gertrude. A point Dominic Dromgoole's fast-paced revival makes is how the pursuit of sweet young thing Rhoda Marley depends upon her learned submissiveness, a situation that's skin deep. When Rhoda lists the women's garments she needs at one point, not just Harold but smoothie-style lovers Clive and Gerald seize-up, any loose limb quivering like jelly. And she enjoys their embarrassment.
That goes with Fiona Battisby's terrifyingly petite Gertrude or Nicola Alexis' sweetly demanding wife-to-be Clara. And the command of woman-who-does' Mrs Leverett, Susan Porrett admirably avoiding excess as someone sure of her moral grounds and needing few simple postures and cadences to show it. Even Rhiannon Oliver's cameo flag-seller has a freewheeling assurance contrasting the men's farcical desperation.
Occasionally the rat-a-tat delivery of short lines lets technique show through character, A couple of mayhem moments, including the finale seemed contrived on Tuesday (such things either come off perfectly or fall flat on the night). But John Dougall carries off his 3 exaggerated visitors with aplomb, making each a fine comic eruption into the Popkiss brothers' (William Mannering and Benjamin Davies precisely catching their urbanity) plotting.
Jessica Curtis' red-and-black dominated setting allows maximum farcical movement in Dromgoole's precise, inventive production. Fit for laughing off troubles in 2005 as much as 1926.
Gertrude Twine: Fiona Battisby
Mrs Leverett: Susan Porrett
Harold Twine: Richard Henders
Clive Popkiss: William Mannering
Gerald Popkiss: Benjamin Davies
Rhoda Marley: Jane Murphy
Putz/Admiral Juddy/Mrs Possett: John Dougall
Poppy Dickey: Rhiannon Oliver
Clara Popkiss: Nicola Alexis
Director: Dominic Dromgoole
Designer: Jessica Curtis
Lighting: Chris Ellis
Sound: Fergus O'Hare
2005-07-20 11:50:20