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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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Bang on for wizard show Flare Path The Nonentities The Rose Theatre, Kidderminster ***** TERENCE
Rattigan's Flare
Path is very much
a play of its time, a romantic drama written and set in the darkest days
of the Second World War. It is fixed in the aspic of its moment, which is
not to say it is dated or showing its age, far from it, this is a play,
when done well, which is a snapshot of the times and attitudes on 1942
when Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany. And The Nonentities have done it very well
starting with an imaginative set built by Keith Higgins and Mike
Lawrence and their team to create the lounge of The Falcon, a small
hotel next to the bomber base at Milchester. Accents, nicely clipped at the posher end, are
maintained well and Joe Harper, as Count Skriczevinsky, deserves a
special mention for his convincing Polish accent and broken English
throughout. The story is simple. Wives have come down for a
romantic weekend with their bomber crew husbands and then film star
Peter Kyle, played by Stefan Austin, turns up. Kyle is British born but
a naturalised American so legally he is classed as an alien but it is
not only in the eyes of the law that he his an outsider.
In the emotional intensity of war he appears
rather selfish and superficial against the full of life, always close to
death airmen. Kyle had an affair with Patricia Graham, a well
known actress, before she married Fl Lt Teddy Graham in a whirlwind
wartime romance while the bomber pilot was on a week's leave. The
question is whether the affair ever ended and whether the marriage was a
mistake. Teddy is played with lolloping, boyish charm by Alex Forty although, presumably as a result of wartime shortages, his uniform could have been a tad more generous, although even that added to childlike view of the world about him. He seems to go through life like an overgrown
sixth-former on a school outing but when another side of bomber pilots,
the darker side wracked be the strains and fears of mortality, come to
the fore Forty gives us an effective display of combat stress, made more
telling by the contrast with his get-the-drinks-in, life and soul public
personae. No one can imagine what went through the minds of
bomber crews where the survival rate was less than that of the average
infantry officer in World War I; 44.4 per cent died, but Forty gives us
a hint Karen Whittingham as his wife Pat could slip
right into one of those 1940's black and white films with soft focus and
voices cracking and breaking with emotion. Her heart searching clash with Kyle in the
wartime love triangle at the heart of the story took me straight back to
those Sunday afternoon films on the old 405 line tellies of the 50s –
clipped tones, quivering voices and gushing emotion - lovely stuff. Pat, played by Phyllis Calvert in the original
1942 production, was about to start in a new play in London and entering
a life centred around ops and missions is a new world unlike Doris, the
countess, the former barmaid married to the Polish count, who is a
resident at The Falcon, living nervously through every mission Doris, played by Laurie Pollitt, was another who
could turn to tears at the drop of a hat and showed a splendid stiff
upper lip when required. Her scene with Kyle, again, when tragedy
strikes is quite moving as Kyle realises there is perhaps more to life
than his sheltered and rather privileged Meanwhile among the lower orders we have Sgt
Dusty Miller, like Rattigan, a rear gunner. Miller, played by James
Stevens, knows his place and never quite joins in the exuberant fun of
the officers he flies with.
His wife, Maudie, played by Nikki Fisher, is down
to earth, taking it on the chin and getting on with it after being
bombed out in London. She is never looking beyond the next bus and
making sure she is back at work at the laundry on Monday. Then we have the adjutant, Sq Ldr Swanson, played
by Chris Clarke, a ground wallah who clucks around over his boys like a
mother hen. Queen of the roost though is Mrs Oakes,
played by Joan Wakeman, the landlady of The Falcon who never even comes
close to a smile – she doesn't do genial jovial mine host. But she does
get up in the early hours to ensure returning bomber crew have freshly
cooked, hot breakfasts. Support comes from Percy, the waiter, played by
Dan Taylor, a youngster who lives on tittle tattle and rumour – a sort
of early, DIY version of Twitter and Cpl Wiggy Jones, played by Chris
Kay, who is very much a peripheral figure but is an interesting figure
in that he was played in the original production by a very young George
Cole of Minder fame. The play has various layers and the cast do a
good job of building the tension of the pivotal action, the raid,
including a crash on take-off, as well as displaying the jovial veneer
adopted by aircrew to cover up the fears of combat. The two main female leads show us two sides of
relationships, one trapped in a triangle with an adoring husband the
other facing the grim reality of war. Credit to for Derek Taylor on lighting and David
Wakeman on sound, who had a lot of cues to get right while Lynn Ravenill
used a lot o clothing coupons to make sure costumes looked authentic. Directed by Tori Wakeman, this is an excellent
production of a period piece which never seems dated but takes you back
to 1942 and life in the Second World War. The play had been turned down
before it was finally produced at The Apollo in 1942 on the grounds
people did not want to see a play about war in a war. It ran with great
success for 18 months. Perhaps the fact it was written in the war, with
Rattigan a serving airman in bomber command, meant that it had to have a
happy ending but Rattigan does make you wait for it. And this production
is worth the wait.To 12-10-13. Roger Clarke |
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