Think
of Preston and the image likely to occur is that of a post-industrial
Lancashire town just off the M6, not really known for having great theatres.
The fact is that the city has a hidden gem that has only recently seen a return
to live performances and deserves to be much better known, Preston College
amphitheatre. This remarkable venue is set amidst an array of tall pine trees
and has everything a theatre production might require, with side and centre
walkways, a semi-circle of descending rows and a stage backed with a stone
structure allowing for two middle and two side entrances. Such was the setting
for the Actor Training Academy end-term production.
John Buchan’s classic novel has
undergone several movie and television adaptations as a gripping thriller and
in recent years been transposed into a farce with four actors playing over a
hundred roles. This production took a middle ground, very much a comedy, at
times bordering on farce but with several scenes of serious drama.
The
amphitheatre was used to great effect starting with an entrance from the rear
by Richard Haney the central protagonist, giving an introductory monologue and
the action taking place in the descending aisles, along the rows and in the
forest to the sides of the audience area as well of course around the central
stage. Fortunately, with the evening was blessed with warm weather and a clear
sky, the use of the amphitheatre was demonstrated to its full potential. The
story unfolded staying close to the original film version by Hitchcock with the
audience exposed to entrances and performances from all sides.
A stylising device of the production
was the incorporation of some twenty members of the cast dressed in blue and
orange some of whom would put on costumes for bit roles but for the most acting
as an audience or crowd in various scenes, from a London music hall to a
Scottish political meeting and clowning around between scenes. This worked to a
degree but at times was a distraction from the period feel of the story,
perhaps a deliberately Brechtian move? The central characters were fully in
costume however with the story effectively revolving around the Haney
character.
Luke Ray was almost never off stage
during the whole show and gave a splendid performance with period speech and
mannerisms as Richard Haney, the self-deprecating Londoner inadvertently involved
in murder and espionage. This was a very physical role with Ray seen at some
time or other seen all over the auditorium and stage. Jessica Rolfe was well
cast as the woman fate had thrown together with Haney as a pair of fugitives on
the run whilst gradually bonding. There were several notable characterisations,
notably Lucy Vernum as Mr Memory and Tom Byers as the cockney milkman with the
amusing double act of Horatio Goldthorpe
and Darci Slater as Mr and Mrs McGarrigle (this was the kind of show where you
could get away with a racial stereotype!).
This was a very good production but
it could have better still if the pace had been faster. An essential element of
farce is pace and particularly in the first Act, many of the exchanges between
characters were interspersed with far too many long pauses. There were also
some key scenes which would have been more effective had they been shorter,
cases in point being Haney addressing the Liberal party rally and the bedroom
scene at the McGarrigles. Otherwise, this was an excellent production in an
excellent venue.
Reviewer - John Waterhouse
on - 26.5.23
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