THE LADY OF LEISURE. To 3 June.
Liverpool
THE LADY OF LEISURE or THE MOLLUSC
by Hubert Henry Davies
Liverpool Playhouse To 3 June 2006
Mon-Sat 730pm Mat 3 June 2pm
BSL Signed 2 June
Runs 2hr One interval
TICKETS: 0151 709 4776
www.everymanplayhouse.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 25 May
Rare revival from the days when this theatre itself was new, somewhat bogged down in present day production cliches.
With its original title banished to subtitle status, H H Davies' The Mollusc has a rare revival in Liverpool a year before the centenary of its London premiere. Fashionable Edwardian dramatist Davies here produced a long anecdote which a less liesurely age might have compressed into a single act. Liverpool sells it inappropriately as "deliciously decadent".
For Davies had a clear moral purpose under the comedy. Society lady Mrs Baxter must stop lolling about all day or this human mollusc wil alienate a husband whose affections are already transferring, unawares, to the governess assigned so many domestic duties alongside him.
It's amusing but could have been sharper if Gemma Bodinetz had not latched onto tired production and design ideas. In place of rapidity in this short play, there's a leisurely sprawl which leaves modern audiences constantly ahead of the plot. Incorporating mollusc-shell motifs into the set on chair-backs and such, is reaasonable. But a huge, unrealistic snail atop the set is plain ridiculous, as is the apparent poppy-field garden. It may be intended to suggest Mrs Baxter's drowsy approachg to life, but it doesn't relate to other characters, while Davies uses the outside as an image of the vivacity Mrs B lacks.
Worse is the pall of undifferentiated langour over the title character, the type of get-the-point-in-the-first-half-minute stylisation that has nowhere to go except into increased monotony. Which happens with the single-tone, over-drawn voice and manner here. Tessa Churchard still manages some fine-judged timing, while her previous form is strong, including a truly delicious Coward double on this stage. And someone else was, it seems, originally set to play the role. I blame the director's chosen style.
Colin Tierney is adequate as the husband, Kellie Bright suitably respectful and resourceful as the governess, though the production doesn't make enough of her developing relationship with Mrs Baxter's brother, returned from Canada. He shares the family's Mollusc-genes but fights back with conscious energy. Greg Hicks shows comic determination and frustation in trying to cure his sister, and the awkward determination of an unpractised suitor to her employee. Forceful and tactful, Hicks gives a splendid performance in a revival worth considering for its rarity, but which could have been more valuable if it hadn't clung, mollusc-like, to current theatrical cliches.
Miss Roberts: Kellie Bright
Mrs Baxter: Tessa Churchard
Tom Kemp: Greg Hicks
Mr Baxter: Colin Tierney
Director: Gemma Bodinetz
Designer: Gideon Davey
Lighting: Charles Balfour
Sound: Mic Pool
Composer: Conor Linehan
Assistant director: Serdar Bilis
2006-05-30 12:20:02