THE GRASS IS GREENER To 5 December.

Tour.

THE GRASS IS GREENER
by Hugh and Margaret Williams.

Tour to 5 December 2009.
Runs 2hr 5min One interval.
Review: Alan Geary 7 September at Theatre Royal Nottingham.

Mildly funny but dated and ultimately unsatisfying.
Like the 1960 film, this starts with that Noel Coward recording of 'The Stately Homes of England'. We are indeed at a stately home, albeit in the modest private quarters, and since there’s a butler about and it’s just a week since the Theatre Royal’s Thriller Season ended, you half expect somebody to get stabbed or poisoned. Nobody does. In fact, the play’s thinnish on plot of any kind.

The Grass is Greener is the sort of non-classic period piece of doubtful relevance nowadays. It’s set in the late-fifties, and it’s the social changes since pre-war days with which it’s partly concerned: the diminished aristocracy, a love for a disappearing England, and so on. But, since the fifties, England has changed even more, so the themes of the play are old hat.

We already know that servants are usually brighter than their masters. The butler, Sellars (well played by Giles Fagan), very matey with a hard-up M’Lord, is using the caper around him as material for his novel. We also get the differences between Britain and America, American pronunciation of English place-names, etc, and the battle of the sexes. All these were discussed to death decades ago, in better plays.

Despite some accomplished performances, there doesn’t seem to be any chemistry between anyone and anyone else. Liza Goddard, as Hilary, the English-rose type, is undoubtedly pretty but un-sexy and a teeny bit hockey-sticks. Hattie, husband Victor’s old flame, a dim but worldly gold-digger, is sexier, but Sophie Ward seems too young for the part - she’s supposed to have introduced Victor and Hilary to each other in 1939. Jack Ellis, as Charles, a sleepy-looking oil man, never makes it clear why Hilary falls for him.

The central character is Victor; Christopher Cazenove plays him well. He’s a sympathetic, self-effacing Tory of the old school in comfy cardigans, and there’s a lot of pathos about him. His speech at the end about marital fidelity is moving but, in the context, it seems a too bit set-piece.

It’s all mildly funny but it’s far from sparkling or profound; and ultimately unsatisfying.

Hilary: Liza Goddard.
Victor: Christopher Cazenove.
Charles: Jack Ellis.
Hattie: Sophie Ward.
Sellars: Giles Fagan.

Director: Joe Harmston.
Designer: Simon Scullion.
Lighting: Mark Howett.

2009-09-10 02:21:06