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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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Baring witness: Keyleigh Alison as Melissa, left, Paul Atkins as Tony, Luke Saldana as Chris and Jane Lunn as Alison. Pictures: Olly Foster On the Piste Sutton Arts Theatre ***** So, here we are, a nation where the last decent snowfall was 40 years ago, yet thousands of us head off to the Alps and Pyrenees each year to learn to ski or at least gingerly struggle down the slopes without spraining ankles or breaking the odd limb or two, to learn a skill as useful here as winding treacle on bobbins. Welcome to Seefeld in the Austrian Tyrol and a gentle John Godber comedy as we join Brits abroad, two romantic couples bedecked in fashionable and newly acquired salopettes, ski jackets and boots, with the latest skis and pristine ski lift passes all set to join the class of the best ski instructor in Austria and no doubt the world - his own description, by the way, in case you were wondering. He being the libidinous Tony, played in louche style by Paul Atkins, with a wonderful mangling of the English as what she spokens is accent. Tony is an ex-Olympic skier, sun tanned, handsome, teaches golf and tennis in the summer, fit and toned and irresistible to women . . . or so he tells us on a regular basis. He also sports not just a builder’s bum but more of an entire construction site’s version but we won’t dwell too long on the craic to be had in the hotel sauna . . . His pupils are Chris and Alison along with Dave and Bev, Brits abroad with all the usual traits of awkwardness and the traditional complete ignorance of foreign languages and customs. Chris, played by Luke Saldana, has a life filled with uncertainty and insecurity in his relationship with Alison, played by Jayne Lunn in a more down to earth and sensible fashion, The couple met at university ten years ago, have lived together for seven and on the face of it are in a settled, albeit unmarried, relationship. This is John Godber though, so at some point we will be taken below the surface to see what is really going on. Is it a decade of not quite married bliss or has the decade seen passion drift from desire to habit? That Alison tells Chris she is the only one who wants or is even prepared to put up with him has that traditional hint of normal married life about it . . . or does it? Then we have Dave and Bev. Dave is a complex character in the hands of Dan McCloskey. Dave is a nice guy, on the face of it, but slowly we see another side to him, selfish, uncaring, even hostile. His feelings for Bev are . . . she adores him, but is it reciprocal?
Dan McCloskey as Dave and Harriet Gordon as Bev He has a sort of collection of imaginary alter egos, a fantasy parallel life with his main escape being to play the character Kevin, who is a greater lover than Dave apparently . . . if only it were that easy . . . Harriet Gordon’s Bev goes along with it, even plays up to it. The couple have been together for six months which, it seems, is a lifetime for both of them in relationship longevity. Dave sees himself as a ski champion in waiting, even though he has never skied before while Bev, who is frightened of heights and makes a descent at a speed even an arthritic snail would be embarrassed about, is doing the whole skiing thing to please Dave. Then we have Melissa, played by Keyleigh Alison. She can ski well and it seems she was in Tony’s class, along with her husband last year. Married three years she is here on her own. We never know why she is alone, what has happened, and although she fits in well with the attractive ski set in the most fashionable resorts, here she is mixing with the hoi polloi with their lager and excitement at finding a restaurant that serves pizza. A lone, attractive woman is a target for any groin led male and it seems fidelity was not one of the stronger attributes of either Chris or Dave who both try their . . . let’s say hand for propriety’s sake. That she was a target for Tony was rather like asking if the next Pope will be a Catholic. To Tony all women, single, married, divorced, status unknown, were possibilities, Melissa, Bev, Alison, the woman in the last class, the ones in the next class, the one’s after that. Throw in the hotel sauna with only towels between flesh and fantasy and the propensity of holidaymakers to drink enough to dull inhibitions, especially the British living up to our reputations, and the age old adage of what happens on hols stays on hols staggers into play, and Tony’s odds of success are shortened considerably. The first act is a scene setter. We learn Chris is a DJ on a minor radio station and does voice overs, that Dave has something to do with cars, flogs ‘em second hand we suspect, that Melissa lives in London and Paris, and that the ski class will not be unearthing an Olympic champion.
Keyleigh Alison's Melissa listens to the avalanche of chat from Paul Atkins' Tony, the ski lift Casanova Dave does it his own way, Chris falls over a lot, Bev doesn’t like it and gets chest pains if it is cold and Alison is odd in that she seems fairly normal among this bunch of misfits. The second act is far darker and the comedy far sharper as the happy relationships of the opening act come under closer scrutiny. Insecurities, uncertainties and out and out hostilities are given free rein fuelled by lager, anxieties and self doubt – we even get a soliloquy from Chris in a moment of enlightenment which involves the rest of the cast in a sort of dream Abba tribute act . . . don’t ask. Godber’s plays have a way of creating characters that we know, people we might work with, friends we recognise, he gives them dialogue we are used to hearing and problems and thoughts we can understand. He gives us characters we follow though their life in plays such as April in Paris and September in the Rain, here the characters are perhaps less developed but with the plot given more detail as the characters and relationships come under scrutiny. Ten years, six months, whatever length of time a relationship, it is sorely tested in the chill atmosphere of a week of snow, ice and après ski drinks – will our couples succumb or survive is the question Godber asks. Mark Nattrass is a magician when it comes to creating sets on Sutton Art’s black box, flyless, wingless stage and has managed to build a working ski slope with an effective braking surface to avoid harpooning the front row, as well as a fold out hotel lounge bar and even a pull out double bed. Dave Ashton has weighed in with a lighting plot which gives us everything from sunlit slopes to dull lit sauna and a nostalgic sound stage. As the set was changed we had a collection of Abba hits and even a sing along at the end, words on screen, to Dancing Queen. The result is a Godber comedy concentrating on what on the face of it is ordinary life with ordinary people on an ordinary winter holiday which slowly drifts into darker areas where our couples perhaps would rather not have had to go. Directed by Dexter Whitehead, the snow will be falling among the laughs to 10-05-25. Roger Clarke 02-05-25 |
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