THE PEOPLE ARE FRIENDLY. To 6 July.
Royal Court
THE PEOPLE ARE FRIENDLY
by Michael Wynne
Royal Court, Jerwood Theatre Downstairs. To 6 July 2002
Mon-Sat 7.30 Mat Sat 3.30pm
Runs 2hr 20min One interval
TICKETS 020 7565 5000
Review Timothy Ramsden 20 June
Comedy and social observation outstrip character richness in this look at Merseyside today.Michael Wynne is the smile on the face of the Royal Court's grim realism. Not that life in this decayed Birkenhead mansion is a comic doddle for Michelle, back on home ground with Robert, a smart partner acquired during her time in London. In the end, busy action and fine performances can't hide the limitations to Wynne's characterisation, but he provides an enjoyable social snapshot along the way.
It's a world contrasted by Stephen Mangan's elegantly pointless southerner, with little to offer Michelle – as she realises now she's back on real earth.
First seen lying uselessly asleep when he should be fixing the barbecue, Mangan's Robert proceeds to lie about his nights in what's coyly referred to as 'the lap-dancing club' and to try on an unsolicited smooch with his partner's niece.
Wynne's Northerners – the friendly people - are independent-minded. But his plotting threatens to reduce them to simplistic types. There's dad, ex-dockworker deludedly convinced there will be new openings in his trade. There's fabulously vacuous young Kirsty, waitressing in lap-land and dealing drugs on the side while saving up for breast-implants and set on being famous – though the idea of being famous for something seems outside her ambition's range.
Michelle's mum Kathleen has the sort of effortful respectability that's been a source of easy laughs for a generation of Merseyside writers; it's thanks to Sue Jenkins' affable ease that Kathleen retains her dignity. And Michelle requires all Sally Rogers' considerable technique and concentration to become more than a comic plot's convenience. Michelle comes alive far more in the flicks of thought and reactive detail Rogers provides than in some of the lines she speaks.
She also has to carry off the plot denouement, a much-trumpeted secret that's no great surprise and not very convincingly handled up to its revelation.
Fine work too, in Dominic Cooke's finely-paced production, from Alan Williams as the straight-man father and Nick Moss as the reserved Brian, on the rim between violence and stolid survival. Michelle Butterly and Sheridan Smith enshrine two generations of socially-sidelined women, whose attempts at motherhood issue in the silent child Eddie and a neglected baby.
Robert Williamson: Stephen Mangan
Michelle Hanlon: Sally Rogers
Kathleen Hanlon: Sue Jenkins
Donna Hanlon: Michelle Butterly
Brian Yates: Nick Moss
John Hanlon: Alan Williams
Kirsty Hanlon: Sheridan Smith
Eddie Yates: Joe Cooper/Jack Richards
Director: Dominic Cooke
Designer: John Stevenson
Lighting: Peter Mumford
Sound: Paul Arditti
Company Voice Work: Patsy Rodenburg
2002-06-27 00:28:58