ROOM AT THE TOP. To 13 May.

Hornchurch

ROOM AT THE TOP
by John Braine adapted by Andrew Taylor

Queen’s Theatre To 13 May 2006
Tue-Sat 8pm Mat 4, 13 May 2.30pm
Audio-described 13 May 2.30pm
BSL Signed 10 May
Runs 2hr 20min One interval

TICKETS: 01708 443333
Review: Timothy Ramsden 24 April

Room to improve before this show’s the tops.
Joe Lampton’s less angry young man than ambitious lad determined to break through the stifling conventionality of small and dreary northern towns. John Braine’s 1957 novel has him meeting resistance but ultimately rewards his daring and nerve. With one exception, concerning one of the women Joe (Philip Reed, suitably clean-featured and assertive) spends so much time bedding.

Matt Devitt makes Joe’s experience in that seething crucible of passion, the local amateur dramatic society, central to his production, which opens as an older Joe returns to buy the theatre. Shelling out for a theatre’s a sure sign of someone with money to burn, so Joe’s success isn’t in doubt from the start. And as the curtain opens on a small proscenium within Dinah England’s set (skilfully combining suggestions of a playhouse with plenty of space) and Matthew Eagland lights the characters from Joe’s past with the brilliance memory gives vivid recollections), the idea works well.

Joe’s workplace, lodgings and trysting-place are set back there; other, more public, scenes, are played front-stage. The mood summoned by period-style jazz fragments from company members not on stage provides stylistic unity. And the amateur rehearsals for a thematically apposite but realistically unlikely production of ‘The Country Wife’ are mostly played spot-on, with good sense if technically stiff.

Joe’s affairs first involve Susan, 19-year old daughter of a local industrialist, in love with him but literally out of his class. Their scenes work well, Emily Parker catching the well-brought up 1950s girl’s innocence and intelligence, faced with feelings she can’t deny. And there’s a well-differentiated pair of older authority figures from Neil Boorman. His Warley born-and-bred Town Hall official Hoylake, bluff and elongated in getting to the point as the desk where he sits, contrasts businessman Brown, father of Joe’s Susan, sharp and misleadingly direct in his bluffing.

More difficult are the scenes between Joe and the older, married Alice. The expressions of sexual enthusiasm, verbal and physical, come over as external attempts to mask passion’s unlit fuse. Overall, there was a hesitancy to this show on opening night, which may pick up during the run.

Joe Lampton: Philip Reed
Charles Lufford/Bob: Nick Lashbrook
Eva: Naomi Lee Schulke
Alice Aisgill: Annie Miles
Susan Brown: Emily Parker
Mr Hoylake/Mr Brown/Ronnie: Neil Boorman
Teddy/Jack: Kevin Pallister
Elspeth: Allison Harding

Director: Matt Devitt
Designer: Dinah England
Lighting: Matthew Eagland
Music arrangements: The Company

2006-04-25 16:01:28