Fred and Madge

at the Playhouse until Saturday 4th March 2000

Joe Orton's Fred and Madge is a fascinating and hilarious insight into one of the most original minds in 20th century drama. It is, in essence, an inquiry into the concept of theatre, and an attempt to explore the results of blurring the boundaries between theatre and life.

Fred and Madge appear to be a typical, bored, middle-aged couple stuck in dead-end jobs, until it becomes clear to them and to the audience that they are inhabiting a play about themselves. The actors perform all of their own scene changes, and a member of the audience is drafted in to help. Marriage engagements between characters and the actors playing them become increasingly confused. By a multitude of such tricks, the playwright bewilders his audience into considering the very nature of the play itself. Onto this meta-theatrical framework, Orton then hangs episodes of his typically biting satire and keen social insight, along with some forays into the downright bizarre.

Madge and her sister's fascination with the incestual relationships of television characters displays the writer's rather black-humoured style of social commentary; two professional insulters are introduced, apparently for the sole purpose of launching into Ortonian invectives on as many institutions as possible; and the rampant vegetation, threatening to overwhelm the house, is symptomatic of the bizarrism which influenced Orton's early work. The play does have its problems. Many of the scenes are rather long: the frequent undeniably hilarious moments thus tend to get diluted with unnecessary repetitions of ideas. Some of the meta-theatrical tactics might appear rather clicheed to modern tastes. Moreover, the piece is necessarily dated by its satirical references to 50s public figures. But on the whole this talented company surmounts these difficulties.

In a piece which relies so much on timing, the directing is precise and accomplished, and James Methven makes the most of a superb group of actors. Peter Morris (Fred), and Bethan Jones (Madge) skilfully negotiate the contradictions inherent in characters who never quite know whether they are living or acting. Also particularly impressive are the energetic and effervescent professional insulters, Justin Williams and Laura Murray.

The performance is slick, and the cast wrings every ounce of humour out of the script. Joe Orton may have been cutting his teeth to some extent with Fred and Madge, but this company certainly is not. Go prepared to be confused, but thoroughly entertained.

Matthew Rogers