REVIEW: "For the Public Good/Celebritney"

(Second review within 24 hours. Check your feeds and/or below for the RZ's review of Riflemind at Trafalgar Studios.)

Ripped from the headlines, it’s Law and Order...er...make that a pair of one-acts at the Baron’s Court. And despite the onset of dehydration combined with the sweatbox heat of the theatre and the assault on the RZ’s abilities and judgement by Riflemind, he managed to make it through both of them.

First up: For the Public Good by Alice Josephs. Based on a recent BBC investigation, the play is framed by a group of women digging around in an old asylum: Isabel (Antonia Christy) is trying to put her family tree together and great aunt Eva has disappeared from all records. An anonymous email to journalist Misty (Laura Waddell) and a pair of friends make the trek to the disused building, and the group are met by former guard turned bag lady Fran (Hilary Burns). As the group are taken through the past, it is revealed that Typhoid carriers, though healthy, were imprisoned in the name of public safety.

It sounds like a lot, but it’s a brief 45 minutes and Josephs does a good job of interpolating the modern characters’ interrogations with the past’s ghosts acting out the events. Burns bounces from evil nurse to guilty conscience with ease, and the cast are decent enough though this isn’t a play to see for the acting.

A more upbeat second work, Heather Johnston’s Celebritney is more of a drama than the comedy the RZ was hoping for, and yet it still works: manager Vee Vee (Jenna Goodwin) and image consultant Jacinta (Rachel Lynes) are stuck with the challenge of turning ultra-boring goody-goody pink teen-pop queen Taysha (Natalie Louka) into an arsekicking bad girl in time to take the coveted Christmas #1. The problem is that Taysha’s management (her unseen single mother) has made sure that her daughter’s lifestyle has remained squeaky clean. Desperate for a scandal to keep their cash cow in the press, the pair begin seeking out ways of manufacturing controversy.

To be honest, there’s nothing particularly surprising about Celebritney, but it manages to stay amusing throughout and knows to wrap up just as it starts to outstay its welcome. The RZ wishes, however, that Johnston had given her characters a bit more depth: the trio here are all rather two-dimensional which is a shame because the script has a nice subplot polygon (this links to that which comes back elsewhere...) that shows Johnston’s potential as seeming throwaways bubble up to the surface.

There’s also the question of music, or the lack thereof. Any play about a band or a musician needs to have plenty of tunes. Instead, Celebritney relies heavily on a single track constantly repeated whenever there’s a scene change or someone flips on their stereo. And like bad pop music, it gets old FAST. The RZ wasn’t taking notes to count, but if he had to wager a guess, the same 45 second sample was probably heard between 10 and 12 times in the hour runtime - and it wasn’t even that good. Fledgling producers take note: royalty free collections, creative commons, and the podsafe network all have stacks and stacks of cheap (or free) to use music (within reasons and limits) to prevent your audiences from wanting to scream at your low budget.

So overall? Despite the heat and the headache, the RZ found these to be pretty decent and he’s not just saying that because he got a press comp for shilling the press release. Neither piece was amazing, but both were competent and the RZ is fond of short form evenings: if you don’t like what’s on now, something else is coming up which may suit you better. And hey, it’s cheaper than a trip to Trafalgar.

Where: Barons Court Theatre
When: Until 28 Sep., Tu-Su @ 19:30
How Much: £10, unreserved
Concessions: £7
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RZ Unofficial “Worth Paying”: £7. It’s tempting to go for the 10, but annoying music deserves a penalty.
RZ Other Notes: This pairing makes the RZ wonder if it wouldn’t be a good idea for someone to start a company and do regular evenings of short plays (e.g. four 20-30 min. pieces) based on current events. Sorta like the Neo-Futurists but longer and less self-involved.

REVIEW: "You've Been A Wonderful Audience"

Old comedians never die. Rather, they wind up in sappy works on the irony of laughter and the ultimate tragedy of death. In a play more suited for afternoon radio, You’ve Been A Wonderful Audience looks at the meaning of friendship and value of respect and old-time comedy at the end of life.

Produced by Drowning Fish, Wonderful tells the story of Tony (Martin Wimbush), a well known comedian in hospice being visited by Paul (Mark Katz), a young professional and admirer and Hugh (Peter Saracen), his long time friend and performing partner. The contrast between the three is immediately obvious: Tony is the suave, gentlemanly pro; Paul the rough cynical voice of a new comedic generation; and Hugh the loser, significantly less loveable offstage than on and the receiving end of torment from both. Still, the bonds of loyalty are fierce, even as Tony and Hugh diverge in terms of lifestyle as the latter is forced to confront his own demons, annoyingly whining all the way, in order to bring comfort to the former.

Billed as a tragicomedy, the ending will be of surprise to nobody, and indeed comes some fifteen minutes after the audience is ready for it. The comedic portion elicits a few grins and chuckles, but is far from brilliant, as if we are seeing the lowest echelon of the comedic duos popular in the 1950’s and 60’s: Rowan and Martin these two are not. Jeremy Bond does his best to fill the tiny Baron’s Court theatre, but he lets the pacing drag. Some wise trimming of Andrew Syers’ book would have helped, as would cutting incidental music composer’s Richard Supple’s introductive ditty which plagiarises the verse melody from “Comedy Tonight”.

Needless to say, this play was not to the RZ’s taste. However, those fond of the Hallmark Channel will enjoy this play greatly (if they can get over its at times questionable use of profanity).

Where: Baron’s Court Theatre @ The Curtain’s Up Pub
When: M-Sa @ 20:00
Cost: £12 General Admission
Concessions: Usuals for £10
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RZ Unofficial “Worth Paying”: £5
RZ Other Notes: This is a rather noisy venue, but an interesting one nonetheless. This would be an excellent theatre for one-man shows, stand-up, etc. And props to Drowning Fish for providing free programmes, though a listing of actor and role would be greatly appreciated in future.