My first visit to the Gladstone Theatre, a small, but rather beautiful building, opened by William Gladstone and part of the wonderfully preserved village of Port Sunlight on The Wirral. A friendly and warm welcome awaited.
The play I had gone to see was the latest from the pen of Nigel Planer, who is indeed no stranger to either side of the camera or stage. This was his farce, 'All Above Board'. Written in the traditional old-school style, so familiar to audiences of forty or so years ago, when Brian Rix ruled the stages with Ray Cooney et al dominating the farce-writing scene. However there were a few things with the writing which, for me, didn't really work so well. The first, and most obvious, was the nature and layout of the flat itself. We were shown a luxurious, up-market apartment, which obviously had a staircase to an upstairs where there were bedrooms. Why then, did we see the protagonist in his living room getting dressed from having a shower? And why was his wardrobe between the entrance hall and dining table Surely he should have been upstairs doing this? I couldn't understand the rationale behind that at all. Furthermore, one of the main plot contrivances is that his neighbour in the flat immediately above him had let the bath overflow and the water had come down into his flat on the (downstairs) living room wall. I simply couldn't understand the layout of the flats to make this even slightly credible.
The ending to the first act was very weak. We were not given any real cliffhanger or comedic premise for the curtain to fall, in order to make us want to return after the interval. The denouement was excellently set up and I really enjoyed this, but the actual ending itself was very weak and an anticlimax unfortunately.
The play was presented by The Northern Comedy Theatre, who, over the lockdowns of the last 16 months, have been regularly providing us with Zoomed comedy theatre, doing their best to keep theatre alive. And now, it seems they are back in the theatres with this play which tours a few northern venues, including a night for the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival.
The set, therefore, needed to be 'tour friendly', which indeed it was. It did not, however, convey luxury or upper-class in any respect. A badly-painted set of flats surrounded the French window and balcony on one side, a couple of orange plastic chairs, and a rather unkempt-looking cream sofa on the other. Why the sofa was facing the fourth wall (the audience) I have no idea; that simply looked and felt wrong.
Most unfortunately, especially for a company which has the word 'comedy' in their title, none of them really seemed to understand that they were performing in a farce. The pace was extremely slow, even by comedy standards, never mind the slickness required for farce, and the characterisations were simplistic and monochrome. (although I did like the multi-facetedness provided by Ray Sutton whose character was suffering from Pick's Disease. [something in the programme about this disease and effects / symptoms would have been helpful]). A distinct lack of both energy and chemistry from all the cast, made this play drag sadly. I really hope that with my seeing this very close to their premiere performance, it will gain momentum and the actors will find their rhythms and stereotypical characters once it has 'bedded-in'. A true sign of whether or not you have 'got it right' is if the audience are with you and are falling out of their seats with uncontrollable laughter. This evening the most we heard was the occasional titter.
Individually, the actors on stage this evening were talented, and were undoubtedly doing their best, under what may well have been trying and unusual circumstances. I am told that the majority of the rehearsals for this play had been conducted over Zoom, and so, this is understandably why the blocking was stymied, the physicality almost non-existent, and perhaps even more importantly for farce, there was no baton-passing. Each character worked as an individual (as you would on Zoom) and there was no ensemble feel to the show at all.
Individually, the actors on stage this evening were talented, and were undoubtedly doing their best, under what may well have been trying and unusual circumstances. I am told that the majority of the rehearsals for this play had been conducted over Zoom, and so, this is understandably why the blocking was stymied, the physicality almost non-existent, and perhaps even more importantly for farce, there was no baton-passing. Each character worked as an individual (as you would on Zoom) and there was no ensemble feel to the show at all.
This 'Classic British Farce' is not dead, but it certainly does need waking up.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 24.8.21
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