WAY UPSTREAM, Ayckbourn, Derby Playhouse, till 2 November
WAY UPSTREAM: Alan Ayckbourn
Derby Playhouse: Tkts 01332 363275
Runs: 3h, one interval, till 2 November
Review: Rod Dungate, 8 October 2002
Dark, funny, the play has lost none of its impact.Alan Ayckbourn – as much an English institution as Shakespeare and more of one than Coward: and you do have to admire his skill.
WAY UPSTREAM, the story of two couples who take a boating holiday together, is full of marvellous challenges. There's the physical – a working launch in water on stage: there's the dramatic – such a dark, dark play: there's the political – the boat and its characters as a microcosm of England. All this and, however threatening the clouds, the laughs still flow freely when they need to.
In this play, what should be an idyllic break from work is ruined by a range of bullies and even worse as one bully disappears so another pops up to take his (or her) place. Around the boat the world crumbles – strikes, cut railways, crumbling buildings. With the passage of time (the play was written in 1981) the direct political impact of UPSTREAM has lessened; the play exists now as a broader one about the nature of the human condition. Yet the work's power is by no means diminished.
Mr Big Chief Bully, Keith, must be one of the nastiest characters Ayckbourn has created. Laurence Kennedy plays him loud, stiff, military and merciless yet he never quite teeters into caricature. Laurence keeps open, too, the all important comedic dimension. Tilly Blackwood, who plays his wife June, first gains our sympathy as the brow-beaten (if dotty, but then who wouldn't be in her position?) wife – a lovely night time scene with fellow traveller, Emma). But she quickly loses it as she reveals herself as another kind of self-centred bully. She is beautifully funny when confronted with bemuscled, hairy-chested, heart-stopping Vince (Owen Oakeshott.)
Director Timothy Sheader wisely allows space for the play to breath and the emotional tensions ebb and flow naturally.
Interestingly Ayckbourn, perhaps hoping against hope that life can't be as black as he paints it, allows his downtrodden underdogs eventually to bite and become victorious. He gives this play a happy ending, a final scene lovely in its understated tenderness between Emma (Fenella Woolgar) and, husband, Alistair (Paul Kemp.)
But even here, the happy ending is fantasy.
Keith: Laurence Kennedy
June: Tilly Blackwood
Emma: Fenella Woolgar
Alistair: Paul Kemp
Mrs Hatfield: Jennifer McEvoy
Vince: Owen Oakeshott
Fleur: Beverley Longhurst
Director: Timothy Sheader
Designer: Andy Miller
Lighting: Philip Gladwell
Sound: Nick Greenhill
Fight Director: Alison de Burgh
Video Design and Programming: Kit Lane and David Phillips
Derby Playhouse has just had a face-lift. Here are the details of the changes and the party.
Balloons galore and a drop of booze greeted anyone going to the press night performance of WAY UPSTREAM on October 8th: the theatre was launching its newly refurbished foyer areas.
I've always had an affection for visiting the theatre at Derby.
The Playhouse has one of the most uninspiring entrances slotted into an even less inspiring 60s shopping mall. However once inside the story has always been quite different. The scale of the auditorium is comfortable with loads of leg room for the tall ones like me, the standard of performance is high and, best of all, there's a friendly audience who have a sense of ownership of their theatre.
And here it is now, all freshly done out and ready to welcome guests again. The general intention has been to open up spaces (or knock down walls) so the feeling is modern and airy. Light coloured furniture replaces the old darker wood and the upstairs restaurant is opened out too. Under pressure from women patrons new and more numerous loos are available (I am informed): these are in a newly built extension. And you can still get out on the roof for easy pick-up if you've ordered a taxi.
The party was opened by Alan Bates, Derby man and patron of the Playhouse. He talked of the passion of earlier Derby people to create the first Playhouse. Their spirit is alive and well, and if my experience of the Playhouse is anything to go by, will be for some time to come.
2002-10-09 10:55:27