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The
appropriately named Tweed productions made a pretty good fist of Saki's
"The Watched Pot" judging by last night's performance. The
comedy revolves around the antics of a "Saturday to Monday"
impromptu house party, and the potential for high jinx that arises
when the strict Lady of the manor goes out. Said Lady must be usurped
by the wife that Trevor (the son) has to be persuaded to marry, and
the chase is on. So far so good.
Strict cutting rendered some aspects of the humour (and plot) a little
unintelligible, because the character based gags were lost. Nevertheless,
comments and asides drew wry smiles and the odd chuckle from a fairly
well attended house, although the action did not.
Directors Oliver Breese and Lauren McAughtry coped well with the perennial
problems of sitting room dramas, (that characters have to move around
to liven things up, but that this is necessarily unrealistic). Although
quite a bit of chair-hopping and general faffing occurred, the cigarettes,
constantly needing relighting etc proved to be useful devices. However,
the movement between sofas and chairs, coupled with a large cast,
made working out who was who and what was where a tad difficult.
Patrick Hennessy was a good choice for Trevor Bavvel. Languid and
unruffled, he lounged his way through the play in a most convincing
manner. His relative (but how were they related? Another "cut"?)
Ludovic Bavvel was also excellent giving an authoritative performance,
and getting lots of smirks from his audience. Philip Womack as the
aesthete Rene St. Gall cleaned up laugh wise, hamming the part up
outrageously, belying his character's sub-plot status. Martin Shotter
put up a solid show and was very amusing in his first scene although
his character might have suffered in the cutting as the play went
on, because it was never entirely clear why he was really there or
how he ended up.
Annabel Clark gave a good comic performance of a hearty country Gel,
if a bit over the top in her flower scene. On the other hand, Charlotte
Murphy could have overacted just a touch more, to make her character
really stand out. Her seduction scene was well played, though the
blokes sitting behind me certainly seemed to appreciate her rather
minimalist toga! Katherine Lewis struck elegant poses, and did a good
job as the manipulative Mrs Vulpy, but since she began the play as
the protagonist and ended it as the baddie, her fall was unexpected
and made her character difficult to grasp. A more spiteful or scheming
approach at the beginning might have helped. Lady Mutsome (Tabby Burns)
was a nice cameo, getting good laughs, and the maid (Rowan Tomlinson)
was good too. Lady Hortensia Bavvel, a character whose utter impossibility
and awfulness was the centre of the plot, was, however not quite believable.
Lena Al-Shammari was gently spoken, and very pretty. She might have
been her son's girlfriend rather than his mother. Her oft reported
character flaws must have been cut from the script, because she seemed
an oasis of sanity and morality in the play. A "Lady Bracknell"
might have worked better. The suspension of disbelief failed, which
was a shame, since Lena was a pleasure to watch, if incongruous in
the part, and I hope, destined to be an ingénue in other shows.
As for the set and costume, I thought that the nail polish was too
modern a colour, and the jewellery was out of period and a bit distracting.
It also would have been nice if the women had worn stockings: the
varying shades of legs mottled under the stage lights were not in
keeping with the atmosphere of 1930's glamour. The constant smoking
left a fog over the theatre, (beware asthmatics!) but through the
mist I was still able to observe in the on stage mirror all of the
off stage cast preparing for their entrances. Might a picture have
done instead? But these are minor cavils about what was a very enjoyable
hour out after dinner and before closing time.
Katherine
Knowles
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