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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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Skeletons in celestial closet Entertaining Angels Highbury Theatre Centre *** THERE are times when I sit in a theatre
watching a play, whilst comparing it to the recalled facts of my prior
research about its history, and wonder if I have either arrived at the
wrong location or Googled the wrong play. If the past reviews are to go be believed this is a humorous cutting edge tale of typical English life. However I left with the distinct feeling that in fact Richard Everett when writing Entertaining Angels, could not make his mind up about what kind of play to write at all. Instead of allowing it to be the ` Carry
On' it begins with, it somehow gets distracted with all the `To the
Manor Born‘ punctuation, whilst then making an effort to debate the
details of religion and the sexual deviations of a group of middle class
women . If this is a `very English Comedy ‘as it is said
to be, then it's not an England that has been in existence since the
1930s and then perhaps only one that exists in our imagination. That's
something of an irony as it was written in 2009. The play, set in the grounds of a vicarage,
centres on Grace (Denise Phillips) who is struggling to adapt to life
after the death of her Reverend husband Bardolph (Nicholas Whitehouse).
Bardolph, even though now having passed onto heavenly pastures new,
insists on hanging around the potting shed in his ghostly form,
dispensing advice from beyond the grave.
This ghostly presence is a theatrical device that
seems to be becoming as common as the `it was all dream‘ scenario having
seen it used in a handful of plays recently. Widowed Grace has an older
sister Ruth (Val Goode) who has returned after 30 years of Missionary
work in Africa. Then there is daughter Jo, a divorced Psychotherapist
(Pip Zvinis) and finally they are joined by new Vicar Sarah (Alison
Cahill) who is all set to take over the parish. Even the spirit of poor old Bardolph is not safe,
as the once pillar of Village decency is brought to task about his
wayward and deceitful past although he's long gone and passed on to the
other side. Derek Acorah would be proud. Throughout though, thankfully, Entertaining
Angels is not without its laughs and the cast manage to time those gags
to perfection. It is indeed the weight of the sarcastic humour that
contrasts to the continual deep introspection about life, that
occasionally wrong foots the audience into misplacing the odd laugh
where it shouldn't be and vice versa. What was nice to see was the production team
exploring the staging process with a clever set and some subtle lighting
changes, signifying the change of Graces memory to the present day. Nothing can be taken away from the cast who each
delivered some great work even though on occasion the velocity of Denise
Philips delivery stunned her opposite into near silence, but having said
that you never struggled to hear a word from anyone. On the night The Highbury theatre was packed to
the brim with and when the laughs came they were loud and huge. So it
seems in the end the local Angels were indeed well entertained. To
27-04-13. Jeff Grant |
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