THE ODD COUPLE. To 19 October.
Manchester
THE ODD COUPLE
by Neil Simon
Library Theatre To 19 October 2002
Mon-Thu 7.30pm Fri-Sat 8pm Mat Sat & 2,10,16 October 3pm
BSL Signed Mat 2 Oct
Audio-described 17 & Mat 19 October
Subtitled 8 October
Singles Night 1 October
Pre-show talk Mat 2 October
Runs 2hr 45min Two intervals
TICKETS 0161 236 7110
Review Timothy Ramsden 23 October
A delirious display showing how the appearance of effortlessness can bring American comedy alive in an English production.Fitting the Library men should celebrate their theatre's 50th with Americana., opening with Associate Director Roger Haines glorious revival of Simon's sixties comedy about two divorced New Yorkers creating an asexual, intensely irritating relationship while shacked up together in a 12th floor apartment.
Both Haines and Library Artistic Director Chris Honer – whose long-term working relation presumably lacks the near-murderous friction of slobalong Oscar and ultra-neat Felix (he even vacuums the carpet in precise geometric patterns) – have built on the Library's fine record in American drama: the US embassy should arrange a bit of extraterritoriality for St Peter's Square. So, no surprise the evening flows like a song from start to end.
A glimpse of the set somehow assures all will be comically well – open, cream-carpeted split-level room, with glittering skyscrapers glimpsed through the window – inasmuch as Oscar's scrunched-up blinds allow. On one side, Oscar's daily mess; on the other the smoky fug from the weekly poker-game.
Haines paces the whole beautifully, the card-playing friends itchily bouncing off each-others' protective Big Apple personality shields. And when Felix – much-heralded by worry over his whereabouts – arrives, it's from a marital walkout and a sleepless night pacing his hotel bedroom. So, Ben Keaton's fiend of domestic tidyness enters looking like a dishevelled Tintin.
The odd couple are beautifully contrasted. Felix is all lightness, composure and thoughtful response. Till his dander overflows, when he's instantly en garde, ladle substituting for a knightly sword, before falling into a lather of fury at Oscar's inability to distinguish the treasured food-serving implement from a spoon.
If Keaton's the educated, insistent suburbanite, Polycarpou's Oscar is the pugnacious street-survivor, conducting relationships through a mix of snarling, feature-twisting aggression and moments of full-volume, feature-twisting outrage.
Excellent work from the two impregnably proper pre-Sloane English neighbours – a hint of respectable sauciness alongside the innocence - and the four individualised poker-players. To see David Hobbs' soft-spoken Vinnie, who's been worrying about getting home, comforting Felix by declaring he can stay long-time, then shrugging his shoulders and looking resignedly at his watch., is to catch just one detail enhancing this richly comic evening.
Speed: Nathan Osgood
Murray: Kenneth Jay
Roy: Terence Mann
Vinnie: David Hobbs
Oscar Madison: Peter Polycarpou
Felix Ungar: Ben Keaton
Gwendolyn Pigeon: Juliet Howland
Cecily Pigeon: Sarah Wateridge
Director: Roger Haines
Designer: Judith Croft
Lighting: Nick Richings
Sound: Paul Gregory
Voice coach: Mark Langley
2002-09-24 10:54:17