THE RISE AND FALL OF LITTLE VOICE. To 21 February.
Manchester
THE RISE AND FALL OF LITTLE VOICE
by Jim Cartwright
Royal Exchange Theatre To 21 February 2004
Mon-Fri 7.30pm Sat 8pm Mat Wed 2.30pm & Sat 4pm
Runs: 2hr 20min One interval
TICKETS: 0161 833 9833
boxoffice@.royalexchange.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 31 January
Magnificent central performances, very good ones around, and precise direction add up to a sensational revival.This is the best production of Jim Cartwright's play I can recall including the premiere. Surprising, perhaps, as the play makes demands for which in-the-round stages like the Exchange are not well-suited.
One is the solos. LV's spots singing the greats are neatly solved by revolving her on a central LP-label turntable. But club manager Boo has to be uni-directional with his intro. patter (though Roy Barraclough's more than enough of an old pro to make the lines work all round).
We do lose out in the predominant domestic scenes by having LV's bedroom her place of safety and seclusion with departed dad's old record collection level with the living-room. A stair-tread pattern's woven into the carpet, but it's used with confusing inconsistency. And her soul-mate Billy's (a quietly sympathetic Andrew Sheridan) approaches to her window by street-lighting hoist lose out: little point him saying he can go higher when he's just descended from the roof.
Yet Sarah Frankcom's production treats the script with vivid sympathy. And the performances are outstanding. It was in the middle of Emma Lowndes' LV club-set we reached the Eat-your-tonsils-out-Jane Horrocks moment' (Horrocks' ability to create the sounds of great popular singers reputedly inspired the play; she created the role of LV). Edith, Marlene, Judy et al, all done with astounding precision - not just technically but as character development for the retiring, defensive young woman we've so far seen.
Who'd not retire when the alternative's meeting LV's mother at closer quarters? Whether Lowndes - the Exchange's finest acting discovery to date or Denise Welch gives the finer performance probably depends who's just had their big scene. Welch's Mari is loud, entirely without self-perception and, comic as her energy's been, she sinks into sympathy when rudely rejected by David Hounslow's agent, wooing mum to get daughter on contract.
As she turns back to Sadie (played with gluttonous glee and unthinking complacency by Lorraine Cheshire), the neighbour she'd cruelly denounced in her apparent triumph, Welch movingly shows Mari broken, her angry cacophony taken out on her daughter's LPs. This is a searing revival, a distinctive Exchange production.
Mari Hoff: Denise Welch
Little Voice: Emma Lowndes
Phone Man: Antony Bessick
Billy: Andrew Sheridan
Sadie: Lorraine Cheshire
Ray Say: David Hounslow
Mr Boo: Roy Barraclough
Director: Sarah Frankcom
Designer: Liz Ascroft
Lighting: Richard Owen
Sound: Peter Rice
Musical Director: Richard Atkinson
Movement: Beverley Edmunds
Fights: Renny Krupinski
2004-02-14 09:50:01