Time at the Bar The prospect of a student production of 'new writing'
may arouse natural suspicions, especially when the theme of the play
so clearly alludes to spending time in a bar. But don't be put off
going to see this show. The play fulfills the expectation that writers
often write most convincingly about what they know best. Happily the
subject is one the cast can also engage in, and it shows. Young Alan is a ambitious student, concerned to make something of his life, and get away from his mother. This means leaving home and friends and lover, Alice, for the bright lights of London and a big job as a lawyer. John, young and old, is a home-bird, content to go down the same pub all his life. Neil, a local lad, works on a building site. Alice and Lucy are frightfully nice and confident girls, attracted to the glamorous life in their youth but settle for provincial domesticity with men they once thought not good enough for them. Alice marries John over a passionate affair with Alan. Lucy for all her pretensions, ends up marrying Neil and owning a boutique in the town. But Alan finds he is unfulfilled by his well paid city job, finds he cannot live with the loneliness and without his mother, and Alice, and opts to return home and take over the bar which he props up by his best friend John. Only the lifelong secret between these two men - Alan's affair with his wife Alice - breaks the boredom of what their lives become. The play leaves the audience to reflect upon the lives of the characters for itself and draw its own conclusions. All in all, it is a sharp piece, full of ideas, twists and uncomfortable truths, immediately engaging and entertaining and throughout. Stephanie Kitchen |