THE ENGLISH GAME. To 28 June.
Tour.
THE ENGLISH GAME
by Richard Bean.
Headlong Theatre Tour to 28 June 2008.
Runs 2hr 10min One interval.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 4 June at Oxford Playhouse.
Pushing the boundaries of cricketing comedy.
You can tell this is a play. No sooner has the last character left than the greensward of Anthony Lamble’s cricket-field set is threatened by sound designer Gregory Clarke’s thunder and rain. In reality, the rain would have come earlier, preventing the amateur cricket side that’s a microcosm of England today, reaching the victory that’s not quite a climax.
That’s a neat touch by playwright Richard Bean. Victory comes with the penultimate ball, rather than the final one, and the celebration is smothered in other circumstances, death, robbery and the splitting-up of a long-established friendship, as the champagne’s brought on then taken off.
There’s a mix of generations and ethnicity in this London team - cricket here is urban, not a matter of village-greens; travel times across London are a worry. But attitudes are set firm, something most clearly seen in Fred Ridgeway’s Reg. He’s the outsider who shows he can contribute to the team. Despite this, he’s discouraged with English politeness from joining long-term.
His views aren’t far from those of Robert East’s Will. But Will expresses them in generalised terms, while Reg is one for coarse laughter and tabloid remarks. Yet Will, though invaluable in organising, or fetching-and-carrying for, the team, has a vehemence in his hatred going beyond Reg’s prejudices. No wonder it’s the most decent, useful member of the team who’s decided to leave England.
Sean Holmes’ production moves skilfully through events, allowing each character to emerge and develop within – well, a team. Performances are strong, from opposing captain Bernard (Peter Bourke giving this fussy, caricatured figure a comic precision) to Ridgeway, who catches the outsider’s keenness to join the group, and the reactionary side he reveals in his miscalculated efforts.
Billed as a comedy, the big laughs are not over-numerous, and have to be waited for. But the real hold comes when relationships and tensions emerge. The play is both less funny and politically sharper than another comedy of amateur cricket, Richard Harris’s Outside Edge, as it examines an England reacting to the new age of terrorism, for it’s very much a play for today.
Sean: Tony Bell.
Bernard: Peter Bourke.
Nick: Rudi Dharmalingam.
Will: Robert East.
Alan: Andrew Frame.
Clive: John Lightbody:
Len: Trevor Martin.
Paul: Ifan Meredith.
Thiz: Sean Murray.
Olly: Marcus Onilude.
Reg: Fred Ridgeway.
Ruben: Jamie Samuel.
Theo: Howard Ward.
Director: Sean Holmes.
Designer: Anthony Lamble.
Lighting: Charles Balfour.
Sound: Gregory Clarke.
Assistant director: Jamie Harper.
2008-06-05 01:37:56