SPYSKI. To 18 April.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

SPYSKI
by Peepolykus.

Northern Stage 15-18 April 2009.
7.30pm Mat Sat 2pm.
Runs 2hr 5min One interval.

TICKETS: 0191 230 5151.
www.northernstage.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 25 March at New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich.

Wilde spy comedy.
There’s a conspiracy here. Party to it are co-producers Hammersmith Lyric, the West Yorkshire Playhouse and Warwick Arts Centre. Its agents claim to be people like us. Cunningly disguising their entertainment as yet another production of The Importance of Being Earnest, they sell programmes purporting to be for that show, but are soon exposed as comic subversives.

By chance – or is it? - John Nicholson is placed in hospital by the bed of a spy who is being poisoned by sinister forces. As a result, Nicholson ends up transporting a baby in a handbag (“a handbag?”. Well, no. Actually, a rucksack).

Meanwhile, back at the ‘theatre’, Nicholson’s co-actors are waiting for him to join them as John Worthing and rehearse. The pressure’s on. An eager substitute awaits his chance. In fact, it’s only this substitute’s unfortunately transparent thespian quality that keeps Nicholson hanging on to the job at all.

There are sinister agents, malicious injections, and shots are fired. There are crafty switches in the scenery, in the interests of changing location, or of fooling any spy who might venture into the theatre - though we’re assured there are no spies in this show. Nevertheless, just in case, and to be sure, there’s an elaborate spy-alarm in operation.

First-timers with Peepolykus may well find it all hilarious. The lumpiness of much devised theatre won’t matter too much – the inconsequentialities in places, contrasted elsewhere by plot-stopping comic invention sparked by an idea developed in rehearsal. Perhaps devised commedia dell’ arte was like this a few hundred years ago. Perhaps the similarly chaotic-seeming Morecambe and Wise were sensible to stick to shortish sketches in TV shows.

For eventually, the Earnest connection becomes more burden than inspiration, something that has to be returned to because it’s there, and which only meshes with the main comedy in a few places. And while Rhona Croker and Flick Ferdinando are strong performers, there’s no doubting they don’t have the same investment of performance personality in Spyski as core Peepolykus members Javier Marzan and John Nicholson – around whose personae Paul Mundell accommodates himself with cheerfully sinister suavity.

Cast: John Nicholson, Javier Marzan, Paul Mundell, Rhona Croker, Flick Ferdinando.

Designer: Tom Piper.
Lighting: Jon Clark.
Sound: Nick Manning.
Composer: Peter Coyte.

2009-04-12 15:18:19