What marvellous believable characters! I can’t believe they’re not professionals. Having seen the club before, I’ve come to expect excellent performances from Stephen Briggs, Kath Leighton and Matt Kirk (watch for the facial expressions) but Jamie Crowther and Sarah Hyland reminded me so much of people that I know. Not a poor performance from any of the others either. The entire play evoked shades of holidays passed, the aspirations of young boys and girls, the understanding of life encountered by the middle aged family and the bewildered approach of the ‘later in life’s who have forgotten the details but remember how damned difficult it was. Life on a beach. Miss it at your peril. I shall watch for more plays from this descriptive, funny, observational writer.
'Beside the Sea' is a new play written by Studio Theatre Club member and published playwright Sharon Stone. This charming comedy takes a look at how a bickering family and two groups of young men and women spend the day on a British beach, in the company of other assorted holidaymakers and the forbearing locals.
Happily, on the first night at least, the weather was kind to those wearing shorts and bikinis, so the cast were spared the goosebumps that often accompany a trip to a British beach. But we still got sand in the sandwiches (and in other places!), the awkwardness of changing under a towel, a dip in the freezing cold sea and all the other features of summer holidays which I remember so fondly from my own childhood.
The play has many funny moments, particularly as the hung-over and desperate lads try their best to impress the uninterested girls. Of note here are Jamie Crowther as Rupert, the geek who hides under his towel whenever a woman approaches, and Sarah Hyland as the city girl who is horrified to find herself without a handy wine bar. Both performances were comical and nicely judged. The scene where another of the lads, Matt Kirk, desperately tries to act ‘cool’ in the freezing cold sea is also very funny, and the difficult business of going for a swim is handled effectively by using the gangway through the centre of the stalls.
Kath Leighton gives a sympathetic portrayal of a put-upon mother struggling to cope with a teenage daughter, new baby, complaining mother and unhelpful husband. At one point she has had enough and leaves her husband to look after the baby, giving rise to some amusing business from Stephen Briggs with a bagful of baby equipment. Dozing his way through the family in-fighting, John Kirchhoff is a likeable and put-upon grandfather complete with handkerchief on head and a nagging wife who he is nonetheless devoted to.
Providing a commentary on the action of the holidaymakers are local fishermen Nigel Tait and Martin Lyons, whose gently sparring relationship provides a good running verbal joke throughout the play.
The set design is simple but effective, with a white sheet standing in for a sandy beach and the rest of the beach feeling suggested by the costumes and various beach paraphernalia brought on by the holidaymakers. The beach café is set permanently in the balcony, meaning that there is no set to move. This allows scene changes to be made with lighting only (some nice lighting effects used in the storm scene), keeping the play flowing along nicely and the audience in the moment.
The play is short but sweet, and a fun way to spend a summer (yes it is summer, honestly!) evening. Catch it tonight or tomorrow and remember what the sun feels like.