THE SINGING GROUP. To 13 July.

London

THE SINGING GROUP
by Judith Johnson

Chelsea Theatre To 13 July 2002
Mon-Sat 8pm
Runs 2hr 35min One interval

TICKETS 020 7352 1967
Review Timothy Ramsden 10 July

A generous comedy of lives built on quiet desperation vocalising together.Adult evening classes have been the basis for tough, political drama (Comedians) and comedy (Stepping Out), but Judith Johnson hits a new note, successfully harmonising sharp laughter and genuine feeling. It's at the expense of some formulaic swings of mood and character relations, but she keeps the right side of cliché and sentimentality.

The play conveys a strong sense that everyone has some need, which other people can help soothe or inflame. Class teacher Tanya is a former one-album singer, now getting by on temping. Though she'd never admit it, she's pleased when ticket agency worker Brian expressed adoration of her long-ago hit, which came out the same year he did.

Locked up in themselves are guilt-swamped, religion-repressed Gordon and terminally downbeat Lucky, Brian's co-worker who is lost in morose self-loathing.

Then there's 17 year old Felicity, the ex-special school girl whose cheerfulness – marked out in a bright white smile that's among the most assertive things seen on the English stage in recent years – resists every provocation apart from her deepening affection for the gay Brian.

Johnson avoids becoming schematic; act one culminates in a choral concert, but there's no harmony between the verbally aggressive Lucky and Lorraine Brunning's increasingly impatient Tanya – who's feeling a failure because Gordon's flunked the concert. And, post-interval, as personal darknesses emerge, the students' solo performance work is offset by Tanya's ensemble setting of Gordon's favourite psalm.

Johnson's writing and John Burgess's detailed direction make the action zing along, helped by first-rate acting throughout. Alexis Zegerman has a repertory of sarcasm and embarrassed rage for Lucky's facial expression while Garry Cooper's Gordon, doubly distanced by his greater age and near total inability to hold a tune - let alone sing at less than fortissimo - shows dignity and a remarkable depth of pain. Best of all is Akiya Henry's Felicity, a vulnerable spirit lost in song. When others laugh at Gordon's efforts, she sings quietly along with him, while in her own solo even the personal expression of sadness rises to a vibrant musical climax.

Brian: Richard Teverson
Lucky: Alexis Zegerman
Tanya: Lorraine Brunning
Felicity: Akiya Henry
Gordon: Garry Cooper

Director: John Burgess
Designer: Simon Daw
Lighting: James Whiteside
Musical Director: Cathie Kaye

2002-07-11 01:42:21