THE CHAMPION OF PARIBANOU. To 7 January.

Scarborough

THE CHAMPION OF PARIBANOU
by Alan Ayckbourn

Stephen Joseph Theatre (The Round) To 7 January 2006
Tue-Sat 7pm Mat 7 Jan 2.30pm
Audio-described 7 Jan 2.30pm
BSL Signed 6 Jan
Runs 2hr 25min One interval

TICKETS: 01723 370541
Review: Timothy Ramsden 15 December

Comedy and adventure, good and evil in a splendid play.
This was Alan Ayckbourn’s first ‘family play’ for the new Stephen Joseph Theatre in 1996, showing in-the-round staging could accommodate multiple entries, a flying carpet and a stormy mountain. Almost a decade on, it seems a better adventure than ever, unafraid to explore increasingly dark areas (the initial heroine ends in an infernal descent) while maintaining the comedy quotient.

Here is a Sultan with 3 sons, one bookish, one amorous and one downright nervous. It’s this third, Ahmed, who’s central. His older siblings appear around the auditorium’s periphery, Ahmed appears on stage with Grand Vizier’s daughter Murganah, his friend and protector. It’s she who, through a Faustian pact while out protecting him on a journey, gradually transforms into a power-crazed tyrant, overtaking the brothers’ potential bride Nouronnihar in the Ms Nasty stakes, a tearaway who used to be such a nice girl (what could have got into her?). This dark plot strand is slightly lightened by something to delight the young, Murganah’s power to silence and humiliate pompous bigwigs.

After a perfect first act, the second’s only slightly less impressive because Ayckbourn introduces Paribanou herself, discovered by Ahmed while preparing for one of the brothers’ quests. And, naturally, she has some action-postponing explanations to give about her mountain hideaway and her need for a champion.

These distinctive women all surround the central figure of Ahmed as figures bad, corrupted and good by turn. Paribanou’s distinction is not to protect him as Murganah had previously done, but to inspire an independent belief of self-worth in him.

As writer and director Ayckbourn finely balances mystery, character and comedy, adding a gigantic robot emissary for no apparent reason, other than his own fascination with artificial means of communication, apparent in several plays. In a strong cast, Neil Grainger is dashingly unheroic almost to the last, Sarah Moyle a first-order brat and Sarah Manton a pre-Raphaelite Paribanou, refined by nature and in manner.

Laura Doddington charts Murganah’s destructive rise with a detail and subtlety belied only by the sudden smearing of black lipstick imposed on her. This show is a serious joy all round.

Sultan/Highwayman: Robert Austin
Houssain: Stuart Burt
Ali: Justin Brett
Ahmed: Neil Grainger
Grand Vizier: Paul Kemp
Murganah: Laura Doddington
Nouronnihar: Sarah Moyle
Safia/Paribanou: Sarah Manton
Salim/Schaibar: Marc Small
Nasuh/Innkeeper: Tom Sherman

Director: Alan Ayckbourn
Designer: Pip Leckenby
Lighting: Mick Hughes
Music: John Pattison
Fight director: Tom Sherman
Wigs: Felicite Gillham

2006-01-01 22:09:11