STEPTOE & SON IN MURDER AT OIL DRUM LANE. To 12 November.
York
STEPTOE & SON IN MURDER IN OIL DRUM LANE
by Ray Galton and John Antrobus
Theatre Royal To 12 November 2005
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Mat Thu 2pm Sat 2.30pm
Audio-described 10 Nov, 12 Nov 2.30pm
BSL Signed 3 Nov
Runs 2hr 10min One interval
TICKETS: 01904 623568
Review: Timothy Ramsden 29 October
Great pair of performances; bit of a pity about the play.
Music’s the last thing added to a film. Yet the first thing likely to take older York audience members back to Ray Galton and Alan Simpson’s 1962-1974 TV comedy series is Christopher Madin’s score, gradually snaking its way to Ron Grainer’s famous clip-clopping signature tune. Then there’s the foul rag and bone shop at the heart of the series, recreated in detail by Nigel Hook’s design. If only Galton’s, and co-writer John Antrobus’, script could live up to this.
Steptoe & Son brought dramatic reality to sitcom, Harry H Corbett’s middle-aged Harold’s cultural aspiration among the detritus contrasting his dad, Wilfred Brambell’s cunning, ferret-like Albert: popular comedy drawing on elements from the Oedipus complex to The Odd Couple. The first lies behind this play, which assumes Harold killed his dad, escaped en route to Broadmoor, and returned to find their Oil Drum Lane home a National Trust property. From the opening cameo of a stereotyped National Trust guide sprinkling dust to make everything look authentic, reality starts flying away.
It flies faster as Albert’s ghost appears, returning us to early days. Albert making child Harold leave his smart school after his mother’s death fits the pair’s history. But as father shuts son in a cellar for the war years, there’s an ill-fitting attempt to widen Albert’s selfishness into political comment and altruistic affection for the lad – undercut by the supposedly farcical gag of Harold emerging in a beard suggesting an over-enthusiastic entrant in a Brian Blessed lookalike competition.
Later things settle down, but a sense of desperation remains; one story has a punch-line half-inched from The Front Page, while the final revelation closely resembles Arthur Miller’s All My Sons in manner.
Yet Roger Smith’s production has 2 superb central performances. Jake Nightingale gives a general idea of Corbett’s Harold physically but his voice catches every nuance of an aural heavyweight on tiptoe, a West London accent veiling itself in refinement. And Harry Dickman might be Brambell’s spirit. The tight-drawn features, the vocal hesitations as he plots his tactics, then the wizened voice that snarls forth aggressively: everything’s there.
Harold: Jake Nightingale
Albert: Harry Dickman
Ribbentrop: Michael Sharvell-Martin
Fiona/Joyce: Alyson Coote
National Trust Woman/Pamela: Juliet Howland
Director: Roger Smith
Designer: Nigel Hook
Lighting: Richard G Jones
Composer: Christopher Madin, based on a theme by Ron Grainer
2005-11-01 09:32:14