THE RING OF TRUTH To 3 October.
Richmond.
THE RING OF TRUTH
by Wynyard Browne.
Orange Tree Theatre To 3 October 2009.
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Sat 3pm & 10, 17 Sept 2.30pm (+post-show discussion).
Audio-described 8 Sept, 12 Sept 3pm.
Runs 2hr 40min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 8940 3633.
www.orangetreetheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 7 September.
No major rediscovery but a sometimes entertaining period piece.
Fifties dramatist Wynyard Browne wrote four plays, his first, 1950 family drama The Holly and the Ivy, the most famous. Ring of Truth, his final play, appeared in 1959 (Browne also scripted the 1954 David Lean, Charles Laughton film of Hobson’s Choice).
As if aware of the new theatre developing around him Browne’s technique has moved from the gradual, realistic stripping away of outwardly cosy family life as secrets emerge to something more farcical, its realism tight-stretched in Auriol Smith’s Orange Tree revival.
The action draws on the format of a small incident leading to a series of unforeseen consequences. Starting at New Year, a happy band watching the midnight celebrations on Tom and Emma Gore’s TV set depart. The loss of Emma's engagement ring is first mentioned casually but gradually brings mayhem all round the house, while provoking a debate, at the dawn of the computer age, on sentiment and science.
Most upset, it seems, are the servants - an irascible nanny, a determined manservant and a cleaner with a defiantly proud Polish husband. There then descend on the country home, first an insurance man whose helpfulness causes subsequent confusion, then a couple of comic policemen (Ian Talbot especially splendid as a know-it-all Sergeant who puts his foot in every wrong conclusion possible).
Add an American guest, whose role Browne never quite defines, Tom’s mother (Jane How, splendid in dowager self-assurance), a kind of lodger/neighbour forever critical and scrounging, whose duffel-coated raggedness suggests a socialist but who’s actually high on religious sentiment, plus an angry Pole and there’s a merry set of characters.
But the play never quite mixes them smoothly, while the sequence of events can seem strained, its logic unclear and some of its discussions over-elaborated. The result is an evening more to be appreciated as a series of scenes, some firing well others somewhat sputtering.
One or two performances misfire too. But mostly this cast achieves an unforced period style; certainly Steven Elder and Cate Debenham-Taylor hold the serious centre, and its combat of sentiment and reason in a relationship under sudden pressure, with sure command.
Tom Gore: Steven Elder.
Emma Gore: Cate Debenham-Taylor.
Sir John Ptitchard/Mr Filby: Paul Bigley.
Lady Pritchard/Nanny: Briony McRoberts.
Ambrosine Wyman: Juliet Howland.
Clifford Small: Dudley Hinton.
Mavis Prizborski: Catherine Harvey.
Joe: Kieron Jecchinis.
Mrs Gore (senior): Jane How.
PC Wimbush: Paul Westwood.
Sergeanty Borall: Ian Talbot.
Mr Prizboski: Piotr Baumann.
Director: Auriol Smith.
Designer: Tim Meacock.
Lighting: Stuart Burgess.
Costume: Jude Stedham.
Assistant directors: Lora Davies, Emma Faulkner.
2009-09-08 14:29:17