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The
great and the
good were out in force to take a look at the splendidly refurbished
gallery after 22 years of work to return this wonderful 1894 building
to all its original splendour.
Making
our way up the many stairs to the gallery, now re-christened Upper
Circle, we really did feel we were up in the Gods but if anyone
in West Yorkshire is looking for a comfortable place to put bums
on seats they need look no further.
A new John Godber play would seem to be a perfect choice for the
theatre re-opening. The writer and director was born in Upton and
his parents still live in the district. He told the Gala Evening
audience that his company, Hull Truck Theatre, regard the Theatre
Royal as its second home.
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| Dicken
Ashworth (Ronnie) and Amy Thompson (Maria) [(c) Adrian Gatie]
but is all what it seems? |
His
latest, and 40th play, Screaming Blue Murder is set in a country
house hotel in which a murder mystery event is taking place. Once
upon a time the building was used as an asylum for hysterical women.
Dreadful deeds may have taken place there. The hotel is certainly
short-staffed and may well be haunted.
Gill
and Nick, who of course are married to other people, arrive for
the special event as well as a night of passion. The room is far
from ideal and the staff are definitely up to no good. Needless
to say their stay is not what they had expected.
I
am not sure what to make of this play. It starts promisingly, beginning
at what might be the end, or was it? Dicken Ashworth, who has played
many a villain on both stage and screen, brings a suitably sinister
air to the production as the hotel porter who is also a relative
of the strange doctor who once lived in the very hotel room we see
on stage.
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| What's
under the cover? (Amy Thompson, Rob Angell and Fiona Wass (c)
Adrian Gatie) |
Rob
Angell and Fiona Wass are effective as the hapless couple, as is
Amy Thompson as the foreign chambermaid who occasionally reminds
the characters that there is a real world beyond the set with real
problems and real murders.
John
Godber has said Screaming Blue Murder is "not a whodunnit.
It's a kind of psychological comedy meeting a thriller." However,
I found the whole experience confusing. I did not find out enough
about the characters to gain any psychological insights. I did not
know whether I was watching a ghost story, a crime story or a murder
mystery re-enactment and, although there were several Godberesque
one-liners, the play was just not funny enough to work as a comedy.
Nor is it big or clever these days to pepper your script with words
which may have seemed once-so-scary (and were, indeed, used effectively
in some earlier plays) , but can now be heard on any prime-time
TV drama. Mr Godber should work in our office, and probably yours
too!
And
before we think John Godber may have lost the plot we should remember
how refreshing comedies like Up N' Under, Bouncers and Teechers
were when they first hit our theatres. Hopefully Hull Truck will
soon be back in West Yorkshire with new gems for the stage.
Chris
Verguson
Screaming
Blue Murder is at Wakefield's Theatre Royal until Saturday September
13th, 2003
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