THEATRE REVIEW: The Cat And The Canary - The Grand Theatre, Leeds.

At the final venue of the current tour, Bill Kenwright's Classic Thriller Theatre Company production of John Willard's, 'The Cat And The Canary' (adapted for the stage by Carl Grose) is at Leeds Grand Theatre until Saturday.

It was my first visit to one of Leeds's theatrical jewels, and built in 1878, this grandiose but somewhat austere building seemed the perfect location for an evening of suspense and thrills. The story of 'The Cat And The Canary' follows very much the traditional route that Agatha Christie made so popular. Several misfits and last surving relatives of a long-deceased and eccentric wealthy gentleman gather in his house 20 years after his demise, to read his last will and testament at the stroke of midnight. Present, as well as the six relatives, are the solicitor, and the house's live-in keeper, a old maid convinced that evil spirits roam the corridors, by the name of Mrs. Pleasant.

The Chrsitie style is maintained by keeping the locations of the play to an absolute minimum thus making the whole all the more claustraphobic, and building tension. However, where Willard comes very much into his own is in both the infusion of wit in the dialogue, and his denouement - which, for obvious reasons, I will not divulge. 

Directing, by Roy Marsden, was tight and secure, and gave each character their own individual characteristics whilst there was still a very strong familial bond between the disparate family members which was cleverly underplayed. The build in tension was excellently observed, keeping the audience on their toes, even though they knew there was going to be a scream or a ghostly appearance, we still jumped! However, there was one major flaw in the directing of the cast. Every time a cast member went upstairs (a stairway located behind a wall flat stage right - although still very much in full view - their subsequent entrance onto the stage was always made from the front door (on ground level)...! No-one ever came down the stairs! And a personal gripe is stage slapping. In Act 2 one of the characters is directed to slap another across the face. PLEASE do it! This slap was so far away from the face you could have driven a bus through the gap and the slappee's reaction was seconds too late. Terrible!

The set design (Takis) was in keeping with the period and the mood, although I would have preferred a little more change for act 2, since we were able to see the library set behind it quite clearly, using the same flats. It was the sound design (Dan Samson) which I found the strangest thing of the evening. During the play, the music used was excellent and optimum; however the knocking on the door wasn't a person's hand nor did it come from the door.. far too loud and from a completely different place. (and no, this wasn't deliberate). But even more strange than this was the choice of pre-show and interval music. A piece of classical music played on loop - very atmospheric and in the mood of the show - but did it really need to be so loud in comparison with all the other sounds? 

The cast boasted some "star" names, and I was delighted to find that none of them played up to this nomenclature in any way. Britt Ekland played Mrs. Pleasant, and was about as far removed from her glamorous image as you could possibly get. A dowdy, but somewhat anomalous and seemingly dotty old frump, convinced of evil presences within the house. Despite her wonderful characterisation, my concern was that at times Ekland was not able to project her voice sufficiently and so some of her speech was lost to me. The same sadly was also true of Priyasasha Kumari (playing Cicily), who was at times so quiet whole speeches were inaudible. 

The solicitor was played with ease by Eric Carte, whilst the rest of the family members were played by Antony Costa, Gary Webster, Tracy Shaw, Ben Nealon, and Marti Webb - looking and sounding every bit like Susan Hampshire. I truly enjoyed the family dynamics and the twiches and gestures given to each, working exactly like all families do... hating each other at all times until a crisis hits and then all pull together proving that blood truly is thicker than water. Until of course the you-know-what hits the you-know-where...

The play is most certainly worth watching, despite my criticisms. There are some truly sparkling moments of dialogue, especially in the first act, and the cast do work extremely well together to bring about a true guessing game of a whodunnit, complete with the pseudo-romanesque-gothic architecture of Leeds Grand Theatre surrounding the action. 

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 23.11.21