STORM IN A TEA CHEST. To 8 September.

Scarborough

STORM IN A TEA CHEST
by Alison Watt

Stephen Joseph Theatre (Restaurant) To 31 August
9, 14, 17, 22, 25, 30, 31 Aug 1.10pm
Runs 50min No interval also on tour to 8 September 2006

TICKETS: 01723 370541
www.sjt.uk.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 4 August

A neat, well-crafted theatrical anecdote.
Playwright Alison Watt has provided something unusual for the Stephen Joseph’s repertoire – a play actually set in Scarborough. For this South Cliff drama, it’s useful to know your Eastfield from your Scalby (though the first isn’t really significant, and visitors will probably work out from local audience-members’ reaction the image of the latter).

Underneath the local references, this is a classic case of throwing contrasting characters together through a single thing linking them. Globetrotting young Jenna with her passionate man-friend and middle-aged, long-term, Scarborough resident Maggie in her tired old marriage, meet as Maggie inspects the younger woman’s flat, up for sale in the local paper.

Watt produces several surprises – including the identity of the property’s real owner, something which scoops up a lot about the relationships discussed within the play. It’s textbook crafty, and if that means it can end up seeming a bit contrived, well, plays are and there’s a satisfying logic to it all. Revelations, and the 2 women’s relationship, are well-structured as the play develops, while details such as the flat’s avocado bathroom-suite and how it’s regarded by the characters, are unobtrusively filtered into the dialogue.

Rina Mahoney opens with a lovely galaxy of accents as, in happy youthful innocence, she puts words into the mouths of the multi-ethnic icons she’s gathered in a round-the-world-in-80-jobs lifestyle, while her youthful optimism contrasts Elaine Claxton’s tight-sprung, wearying experience.

Never, as Maggie says, “assume someone who’s sensitive to their own feelings is sensitive to yours”. Watt’s play explores the theme succinctly. Tamara Harvey’s production might give more space (as might the tiny stage in the theatre Restaurant) to the near-violence of one moment, but generally provides an apt pacing while allowing both characters to keep audience understanding and sympathy.

Jenna: Rina Mahoney
Maggie: Elaine Claxton

Director: Tamara Harvey
Designer: Michael Roberts
Sound: Steve Carley

2006-08-07 10:42:49