People's Theatre
10th May 2022
What do you do when you're an amateur theatre group and you've just lost your funding? You recruit a Hollywood Star to get your play some much needed publicity and save your theatre from closure. And, of course, Hollywood Stars are falling over themselves to help you out. Of course they are. What do you do if you're a jaded Hollywood Star who's getting too old to be the Action Hero, and the scripts are drying up? You accept your agent's advice and jet off to little old England to do Shakespeare in Stratford. Except your agent doesn't make it quite clear that the Stratford Players are not the Royal Shakespeare Company, and they're not on Avon, they're in Norfolk, and they are an amateur dramatics group.
Ah. There's the rub.
And so it comes to pass that action hero Jefferson Steel comes to play Lear in a drafty barn in Norfolk, and his big American ego almost scuppers the whole show and his career.
Written by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman this is a beautifully observed, witty play. Yes, the characters are stereotypical but they are drawn with such wit and affection, and with enough heart to ensure they are rounded and real characters. The performances are spot on. Steve Parry is brilliant as the loudmouthed (and foul-mouthed) American with an inflated sense of his own worth. He is outwardly over confident, inwardly fragile. Roger Liddle is equally impressive as his English equivalent, Nigel Dewberry - pompous, self-aggrandising, and self-declared "star" of the Stratford Players. The friction crackles between these two characters. As passions run high and tempers flare, it is left to Dorothy, the director to smooth things over and keep the play on track. She has her work cut out, but she manages all of the characters in her troupe of players with skill and diplomacy and a not insignificant amount of guile. Kay Edmundson could easily be overlooked in the shadow of the more exuberant characters but she holds this play within a play together with an understated and quite brilliant performance.
Simplicity is often the key to a great production and this is the proof of it: an uncomplicated plot, an uncluttered set, with unobtrusive changes that happen like clockwork. Add in a cast who are clearly enjoying themselves under the impeccable direction of Steve Hewitt and you have a production that can't fail to please. This is born out by the laughter and applause from the audience tonight.
They certainly do know what they are doing at the People's Theatre. This bunch of amateurs are playing until Sat 14th May and are an absolute joy to watch. You will come away with a smile on your face.
Denise Sparrowhawk
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