TRELAWNY OF THE 'WELLS'. To 21 May.
London
TRELAWNY OF THE WELLS'
by Arthur Wing Pinero
Finborough Theatre To 21 May 2005
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Sun 3.30pm
Runs 1hr 55min One interval
TICKETS: 0870 4000 838
www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 1 May 2005
Production of a comedy about Theatre revels in comic detail but might celebrate its onstage playwright more fully.A quarter-century's theatre-making upstairs at the Finborough pub is celebrated with magnificent ambition in this rare revival of leading late 19th century playwright Arthur Pinero's love-letter to theatre and look back in gratitude at Tom Robertson, the playwright whose innovations replaced melodrama with daily life on stage. For the Wells' is Sadlers Wells and if it's absurd to bring such a big theatre to life on such a small stage, then succeeding with outrageously unmanageable challenges is where the Finborough excels. It's small space, not small-scale.
Rose has clearly been virginal maiden lead in many a Wells success, but the curtain built into Alex Marker's ingeniously flexible set opens at the start to reveal her well-born lover, arriving for a surprise party as Rose leaves the Telfers' theatre company. These actor-managers, comfortable old James and cheery Violet, are delightfully encapsulated by Brian E Cook and Ursula Mohan. But the happy scene soon transforms to discover Rose seated like a prisoner amid the deadening routine of her beloved's fashionable family home, where she is on trial' as a potential family member.
Aided by atmospheric (pre-recorded) music, director Phil Willmott goes for the quick kill, starkly contrasting the worlds of theatre and society (seen from backstage and front parlour respectively) especially when Rose's late companions sneak into the Gower home, creating a quarrelsome mayhem between Timothy Dodd's tragedy king and Peter Mann's comedian.
In respectable society, Mohan creates a neat old lady (born in 1805 and named for that year's great battle), ever in the thunderous shadow of her brother and therefore explicably fearful of thunder. Yet even James Horne's commanding patriarch is softened by memories of actor-star Edmund Kean, his references to being different when young avoiding sentimentality through restraint.
Rose (Lara Agar-Stoby assertive even in misery) makes the point that Rose's sufferings leave her ready to understand the truer psychologies of Tom Wrench's plays (the rehearsal of one is shown, and might be made more prominent), while both Telfers retain their dignity when cast off into theatrical history as surely as Falstaff is rejected when Prince Hal becomes King Henry.
James Telfer/Charles: Brian E Cook
Violet Telfer/Trafalgar Gower: Ursula Mohan
Rose Trelawny: Lara Agar-Stoby
Arthur Gower: Hywel John
Ferdinand Gadd: Timothy Dodd
Avonia Bunn: Helen Marie Weaver
Augustus Colpoys: Peter Mann
Sarah/Clara De Foenix: Jacqueline Wilder
Imogen Parrot: Alexandra Aitken
Tom Wrench: Elliot Hill
Captain De Foenix: Ben Graves
Sir William Gower: James Horne
Director: Phil Willmott
Designer: Alex Marker
Lighting: Hansjorg Schmidt
Costume: Penn O'Gara
Assistant director: Phil Sealey
2005-05-02 02:58:03