SEPARATE TABLES. To 15 October.

Sonning

SEPARATE TABLES
by Terence Rattigan

The Mill at Sonning To 15 October 2005
Tue-Sun 8.15pm Mat Sat & Sun 2.15pm
Runs 2hr 25min One interval

TICKETS: 0118 969 8000
www.millatsonning.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 25 September

Seaside lives going nowhere are given a fine revival by the Thames.This double-bill, set in a genteel mid-fifties Bournemouth Hotel, is the kind of play blown out of the water with the arrival of Look Back in Anger's Jimmy Porter. Compare Porter's motor-mouth with the only male youth here, medical student Stratton, and for all Nick Waring's detailed performance it's clear the character's written by an author who didn't understand the new generation. Similarly, it's no way Alix Dunmore's fault her fiancée/wife seems a middle-aged lady in waiting.

A veil of restrained despair hangs over the whole action, admirably caught in Alvin Rakoff's nuanced production. Rattigan knew every cranny of failed hopes and secret self-protection emotionally crippling the more mature singleton residents at the Beauregard Private Hotel.

Each half focuses on a couple of people, but the background's rich in implication, be it Dennis Ramsden's lively-minded ex teacher, forever denied the best food and booking rooms for friends who don't arrive, or Christine Russell's Miss Meacham, making up for missing out on life by following the horses, all the time denying problems with her sight.

Apparent friendships can be crutches against loneliness. It's clear Sarah Badel's steamroller of prejudice Railton-Bell, smothering her daughter's tenuous chance of developing self-confidence, is entirely dissimilar from Helen Ryan's kindlier Lady Matheson, onto whom she latches. Ryan's expert at letting reticence or a momentary smile indicate the distance she feels from this friend'.

Only Patricia Kane's jolly waitress Mabel bustles smilingly around while her manageress, Miss Cooper (Susan Skipper, admirably tactful), shares the woes, and occasionally feels affection for, her troubled guests: working-class origins are the sole safeguard against angst.

In deeper focus is aging model Mrs Shankland, meeting up with an ex-husband years after their violent marriage. Her elegant poise is near cracking with the years, he's become a drunken bolshie journalist. Glynis Barber balances hope and fears, before giving a more conventional portrait of the self-doubting young Railton-Bell.

And there's Anthony Valentine's double portrait of two convincingly shredded lives, the left-wing Malcolm and the confident-seeming, misdemeaning Pollock. Valentine's powerful presence combines with a surprisingly light and hesitant vocal manner. Restraint has rarely spoken so eloquently.

Mabel: Patricia Kane
Lady Matheson: Helen Ryan
Mrs Railton-Bell: Sarah Badel
Miss Meacham: Christine Russell
Mr Fowler: Dennis Ramsden
Mrs Shankland/Miss Railton-Bell: Glynis Barber
Miss Cooper: Susan Skipper
Mr Malcolm/Major Pollock: Anthony Valentine
Mr Stratton: Nick Waring
Miss Tanner: Alix Dunmore

Director: Alvin Rakoff
Designer: Eileen Diss
Lighting: Matthew Biss
Costume: Jane Kidd

2005-09-27 11:46:43