THE ENTERTAINER. To 7 February.
Liverpool
THE ENTERTAINER
by John Osborne Music by Richard Addinsell
Liverpool Playhouse To 7 February 2004
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat 2pm + 29 January 1.30pm
Runs 2hr 45min One interval
TICKETS: 0151 709 4776
boxoffice@everymanplayhouse.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 24 January
Was it an off-day? Rarely have proven performers seemed so ill-at-ease.Four years ahead of becoming Euro culture city, Liverpool finally has its two producing theatres going again. True, only one of the Playhouse and Everyman (now jointly run) will have its own work on at any time, but there's good, varied touring material around to run in parallel. The major test will be artistic director Gemma Bodinetz' Calderon at the Everyman in February. Meanwhile, the Playhouse opener is a mixed blessing.
Until Edward Bond wrote a play called Bingo, John Osborne's long, serious drama topped the misleading titles league. Not because it isn't good, but because among passing trade there's room to mis-take the title increased here by laudatory quotes outside the venue from Ken Dodd.
Diddymen and Doddy land it's not. Osborne's entertainer is a down-at-heels, end-of-the-road rather than end-of-pier comedian seeking to keep up the only job he knows by using posing girls (stage nudity in fifties Britain was restricted to women who didn't move). His view of music-hall's death showed the playwright could look back in something other than anger, though there's plenty of that for 1957 England, its imperial vanity summed up in the invasion after Egypt's Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal.
Archie's financial desperation makes him put his one-time famous dad Billy back on the halls; it kills the old man just as Suez was fatal to Prime Minister Anthony Eden's political career. If Archie is the best English variety can produce, no wonder it's riddled with demise. It's clear from the way Corin Redgrave addresses only the Playhouse front stalls that Archie's not raking in the audiences; Redgrave initially dances on in school uniform, with short trousers, and a prop lollipop a desperate Jimmy Clitheroe (the Peter Pan of mid-century English comedy).
Whether 2pm's too early for the cast, or minds were on the cup-tie at Anfield (Liverpool v Newcastle the leading contender for City of Culture which Liverpool beat), Saturday afternoon's performance often felt like a rehearsal run, with more mistimings and actors coming in on each other's cues than can be ignored.
The production, edited down to five characters, doesn't help. The nude Britannia, searing image of music-hall's seediness and Britain's decline, has gone (though Archie talks about her appearance). Usually fine designer Ti Green's minimal set - two isolated doors, a comfy chair placing old Billy at the side (over-marginalising him) and a piano is disastrous, an anonymous environment for the Rice household, characters often talking across the piano (presumably not against the imaginary wall, strange in a cramped living-space). Archie's final exit into rain becomes an over-obvious damp-squib of a thematic comment.
The staging means Archie's stage act mixes with his home-life. It doesn't work. As Redgrave moves between the two the sense of stage-time glitter and dead-behind-the-eyes reality lacks the sharp focus a different environment could give.
No-one's seen at their best. Derby Playhouse's 2003 revival wasn't perfect but of three recent productions (Glasgow Citizens' being the third) it is the one to have seen.
Billy Rice: Leslie Randall
Jean Rice: Eileen Walsh
Archie Rice: Corin Redgrave
Phoebe Rice: Paola Dionisotti
Frank Rice: Mark Rice-Oxley
Director: John Tiffany
Designer: Ti Green
Lighting: Natasha Chivers
Sound: John Leonard
Voice/Dialect coach: Terry Besson
Music Director: Jason Carr
Choreographer: Linda DoBell
2004-01-25 11:24:40