THE INVISIBLE MAN. To 8 June.
Oldham
THE INVISIBLE MAN
by Ken Hill, based on the novel by H.G. Wells
Coliseum Theatre To 8 June 2002
Mon-Thur/Sat 7.30pm Fri 8pm Mat 1 June 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 50min One interval
TICKETS 0161 624 2829
Review Timothy Ramsden 25 May
An amiably ramshackle adaptation of Wells, played for all it's worth.Is it Wells worth coming to see the invisible man? Or rather, Freda's Follies at the Empire, entertainment 1904 style, celebrating the Anglo-French Entente Cordiale with a terrible account of attempted world domination by the man you cannot see and a voice afflicted by hollow amplification.
Ken Hill's not the man to let a theme get in the way of a good – or, indeed, fair-to-middlingly awful - joke. So don't expect a serious meditation on Wells' science-fiction. Instead, the story transports us to little Ipping, rural English village of a thousand panto fantasies, its lives and lusts as people grapple with the strange visitor who has only to slip into his birthday suit to go on a spree of nose-tweaking, stomach-punching, carotid-splitting violence. The bounder even nicks his rent arrears at The Village Green inn from the church funds (ironic, given Wells' views on religion).
Along the way he picks up (generally by the scruff of the neck) a passing tramp, Thomas Marvel. Despite multiple knocks and kickings, Marvel survives to market his experiences on the Halls, becoming the bane of Eric Potts' MC and flirting with several ladies in the front stalls.
Such a show lives by its wit, tricks, and - of course - a chase through the audience. Hill doesn't provide enough strong laughs or surprises to build hilarity and tension to the point where the cast's chase of the invisible one through the village hall crowd (ie, us) is the comic highlight it should be. Neither the jokes nor the effects are quite enough to stretch over a long evening, which therefore begins to seem self-regarding.
Yet The Great Kovari contributes several neat moments as a knife floats threateningly through the air or a glass of milk apparently drinks itself. And he ends with much the same vanishing act which opens the current RSC Roundhouse Winter's Tale.
The cast works heartily, with the right degree of nudge-wink knowingness to match their false moustaches. It's quite good fun, but instead of being caught up in the stage world, we're too often left seeing through it.
Mrs Hall/Freda: Michelle Butt
Dr Cuss/Fearenside/Wadgers/Colonel Adye/Member of the Follies: Paul David-Gough
Millie/Member of the Follies: Amanda Horlock
Griffin: Jonathan Kemp
Wicksteed/Member of the Follies: Jeffrey Longmore
Squire Burdock/Member of the Follies: Corin Mellinger
Thomas Marvel: James Nickerson
The MC/Reverend Bunting/Kemp/Jaffers: Eric Potts
Miss Statchell/Member of the Follies: Kate Williamson
Director: Kevin Shaw
Designer: David Haworth
Lighting: Phil Davies
Sound: Mark Howarth
Costumes: Celia Perkins
Music: Brendan Healy
Musical Director: John Morton
Choreographer: Beverley Edmonds
Fight director: Richard Ryan
Effects: The Great Kovari
2002-05-26 07:31:42