The Darling Buds of May

by H E Bates

May 25 - 28 2005

Directed by

Bob Ryder

Mark Best

Cast

Maria Abrams

The Darling Buds of May  is probably best known as a television series responsible for launching the career of a young Catherine Zeta Jones, a journey that took her all the way to Hollywood .  A stage adaptation of the book, written by H E Bates in 1957, was presented this week at The Barn Theatre, Southwick by the equally impressive Wick Theatre Company.

The play follows a month in the life of the irrepressible Larkin family and has an undoubted ‘feel good’ factor.  Pop wheels and deals to provide for his family (and it seems most of the local community!), Ma ensures all are well fed, whilst Mariette entertains visitors with trips to the Bluebell Wood to hear the nightingales sing.  The play begins with the discovery that Mariette may be pregnant and ends with her engagement to Cedric Charlton , a civil servant who foolhardily attempts to get to the bottom of Pop’s financial affairs.  In between we are treated to hilarious scenes as Mr. Charlton is seduced by the Larkin way of life, which appears totally fuelled by food, alcohol and sex.  In the central role of Pop, John Garland was outstanding.  He was at the hub of every scene, orchestrating the action, and managed to keep the perfect balance between the dodgy dealing and the genuine love for his family, friends and the countryside.  The key to his portrayal was the cleverness with which he slowed his normal frenetic pace whenever he was contemplating the joys of life.  Sharon Watts (Ma Larkin) provided the stability for the family and is equally praise-worthy for her portrayal of the Earth Mother ensuring the well being of her offspring.  Her concern for poor Mr. Charlton , and her willingness to take him to her ample bosom, was delightful.  Comic timing is key and Adrian Kenward was ideal as Mr. Charlton .  What really impressed me was his use of mannerisms and other physical acting skills.  His transformation from shy, retiring clerk to confident fiancé was great and I felt the scenes in which he gradually becomes more intoxicated were highlights of the show.

Lauren Gould certainly looked the part of Mariette , and I was pleased that she decided to play the role with a girlish naivety, rather than becoming overtly sexual.  However, when she had to fight for her man she literally did, showing a whole different side to the character.  This was helped by a wonderful cameo performance from Amy Curtis as Pauline .  The rest of the cast were also excellent, and special mention should be made of Barbara Thomas ( Edith ) who stole the show in her courtship scene with Pop.  The company also took the opportunity to blood a few members of their youth section with Rhiannon Whelan and Jessica Groves particularly noteworthy as the twins.

The set was dressed with real foliage and hay bales and the sound and lighting effects added to the atmosphere beautifully.  I felt the split set caused a few problems with blocking and on one occasion I could hardly see an actor through an entire scene, but this did at least avoid lengthy scene changes that could have adversely affected the flow.  Clearly the audience enjoyed themselves.

The quality of this production was superb as one has come to expect from The Wick, which must be considered one of the strongest amateur companies in the county.  Congratulations to all involved both on and off stage under the capable guidance of directors Bob Ryder and Mark Best .  It was perfick!

Words and Music

Gordon Bull

H E Bates’ creation of the shambolic and amoral world of the Larkin family has brought delight to both readers of his books and to viewers of the television adaptations.  That delight has now spread to the audiences at Southwick where a revival of the author’s play was recently presented.  This world was re-created to good effect in the current production.  John Garland ’s Pop was a down-to-earth provider for his family, showing genuine bewilderment when Mr. Charlton , the tax official, tries to drag him back to reality.  One sensed that as a wheeler dealer he would be benign and fair in his dealings, as opposed to the “ Del Boy ” antics of his TV counterpart. 

As Ma Larkin, Sharon Watts was delightful and appeared to have stepped straight out of the pages of the book.  She was the personification of the author’s creation - large, jovial and shaking like a jelly when she laughed.  A true Mother Earth figure - enfolding all and sundry in her large bosom and constantly wanting to provide them with food.  Adrian Kenward displayed wonderful comic talent as the hapless Mr. Charlton especially after partaking of a couple of Pop’s special cocktails.  He is the object of romantic pursuit by Mariette , the Larkin’s eldest daughter, and Lauren Gould captured both the girlishness and the sexuality of the character.

The rest of the cast provided excellent support, led with the performance by Barbara Thomas as Edith Pilchester .  Her portrayal of the love-starved spinster, ever grateful for the affection shown by Pop, was superb.  She fully realised the comic potential of the part.  There were fine cameos from Derek Fraser as the retired Brigadier living in reduced circumstances, Ralph Dawes as Sir George , and Rosemary Bouchy , taking time off from her Publicity duties, to turn in an amusing performance as Lady Bluff-Gore.   

Nick Richmond was suitably bemused and bewildered as Charlton’s boss, whilst Amy Curtis impressed with her realistic cat fight with Mariette .  The fun-loving Angela Snow , whose arrival towards the end of the play was as lively and as crackling as the fireworks that she lit, was Nikki Dunsford .  Another portrayal that stepped straight out of the pages of the book.

And a word of praise for the four youngsters who played the rest of Larkin children for their concentration and for remaining in character during the times when the action did not involve them.

The Life and Death
of  Almost Everybody

by David Campton

August 11 - 13 2005

Directed by

Mark Best

This year Young Wick have chosen a play with a comic tone - but underneath there are some serious and symbolic moments that mirror our own history.  As he tidies up an empty stage, The Sweeper is tempted to experiment with the magic power of the theatre, to create life through the exercise of the imagination.  From this The Sweeper creates a Young Man and a Young Woman.  As events begin to go beyond his bewildered control, the most potent forces in human life and society - love, hate, politics,  religion - emerge and dominate.  Eventually, The Sweeper struggles to regain control of his delinquent creations, but can he banish them back to the shadows before the Stage Manger returns?  All you have to do is imagine ..."

Cast

Andy Trotman

A play about God, Life, and the universe.  A pretty heavy subject for a Thursday night, I think you will agree.  However, Young Wick Theatre Company have made all these subjects interesting, and even fun, in their production - The Life and Death of Almost Everybody.  Heavily drenched in metaphor, the play tells the story of a theatre cleaner, who sweeps the stage after performances.

This sweeper starts to imagine a man and a woman, who come to life.  Soon, he has created a whole host of people who can exist without his influence.  As events become increasingly stressful for the sweeper, he must try to get rid of all the characters before his boss, the theatre manager, arrives. 

I was a bit worried as to how this play would transmit to an audience, being a very thought-provoking production with a comic undertone.  I was also wondering how a youth theatre company would deal with the subject matter.  My fears proved to be ill-placed.  Tom Harris, playing The Sweeper, was perfect for his rôle.  Always full of energy and passion, impressive as his character is on stage for practically all of the play, Tom led the rest of the cast brilliantly.  His comic timing and stage presence was one of the highlights of the performance.  Support from Paul James, as Young Man, and Sara Hadfield, as Young Woman, was insightful, both working well with The Sweeper.  

For some of the actors, this was their debut performance.  This makes the effectiveness of the production even more remarkable, given that it was produced with such a high level of professionalism.  With regards to the acting on display, special mention must be made to Kira Branlund, who played Aunt Harriet.  She was superb as The Sweeper's rival deity, coming across to the audience as adequately conniving and evil.  Her mannerisms and personality were a delight to watch.

Despite a few teething problems, such as a few people forgetting their lines, this was a performance that held my interest throughout.  A great evening's entertainment.

Barrie Jarrem

Imagine if you will - and imagine is what the audience was asked to do in this most challenging production for young actors - a bare stage on which people were conjured up from the vivid imagination of the man employed to sweep the stage.  His intention was to control these characters, but they took on a life of their own and a battle of wills ensued.  They started to take over the action and wanted to dictate the story line.  In this respect the play carried echoes of the work of Italian playwright, Luigi Pirandello.  His play Six characters in Search of an Author came to mind.

This is a morality play about power featuring the eternal struggle between good and evil, and takes a swipe at politics, and fashionable religions.  Despite its serious content there was a lot of humour in the piece, much of which came from Kira Branlund's delightful and assured portrayal of Aunt Harriet, the eternal busybody.  The part of The Sweeper is a major one, because he acts as a narrator as well as a performer in the story.  Tom Harris gave a fine performance and handled well the long and difficult monologues that he was required to deliver.  The other main characters were The Sweeper's creations, Young Man and Young Woman, played well by Paul James and Sara Hadfield, who successfully managed the various transitions as they moved from mindless zombies to power hungry rulers.  A large cast played the rest of the parts with some of the young actors doubling up.  On the whole their standard of acting was good with Sophie Lane's performance as Gluttony being worthy of a special mention, as was the comic miming of Hugo Harwood as a Messenger.

Mark Best's sound Direction ensured that the audience had an entertaining and thought provoking evening.  His rapport with the young cast was apparent in eliciting so many good performances.   However, there is an element of weakness that he must address and work on with some of his cast.  A few of them had problems with their diction and need to be helped with voice projection.

The Dumb Waiter

by Harold Pinter

Directed by

Richard Ratcliffe

&

Anorak of Fire

by Stephen Dinsdale

October 5 - 8 2005

Directed by

Patricia Lyne

Anorak of Fire was first presented at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1993.  It had an immediate popular success and has since been played widely in small theatres across Britain, with several revivals at the Fringe too. 

We welcome three new [or relatively new] Wick actors in the production.  John Griffiths is making his Barn début in Anorak of Fire.  Mark Best and Ray Lainchbury [in the Dumb Waiter first appeared in The Accrington Pals, and Mark has been seen more recently in Blue Remembered Hills.  They have been closely involved in the development of the Young Wick section of the company.

We also welcome the involvement in this production of several new members who have joined the company in the last few months, in various rôles in the backstage, workshop and Front of House teams. "

Cast

Daniel de Silva

The crème de la crème of local acting talent was whisked into shape on Saturday evening, offering a new blend of stage magnitude.  The Wick Theatre Company put on two unique, self-styled one-act performances at the Barn in Southwick, creating an array of surprises, jokes and a very enjoyable acting style.  With more than 50 years of experience entertaining the local community, I was impressed by these well choreographed plays that demonstrated true talent.

The performance of The Dumb Waiter, which began the evening, with two gifted actors, was my favourite because of the funny jokes, which seemed to work really well with the audience.  They play the parts of two hardened gangsters, who were not quite sure of the situation they were in and questions of immorality seemed to spark some concerns.  After the interval, the next act, Anorak of Fire, was not as exciting but still portrayed a very intelligent and witty performance about the life of a train spotter.

As the train enthusiast clutched his neatly packed lunchbox and stood before the impressive scenery, he laid down the rules of what not to do standing on a platform.  Can a so-called train spotter really have a personal relationship next to the train tracks?

This hilarious solo sketch concluded the evening with laughter and embodied a tremendous skill in keeping the audience entertained for the entire act – an impressive performance from an actor with so much potential.

Barrie Jarrem

The Wick Theatre Company has on offer two comedies for the price of one and how contrasting they prove to be.

The Dumb Waiter is an early work by Harold Pinter, dating from 1960. It is dark tale of two men, Ben and Gus, holed up in a basement hotel room and waiting, not for Godot but for Wilson, another mysterious person who fails to materialise.  hey are there to do a job or rather to carry out an assignment for it transpires that they are hired killers awaiting instructions as to their target.  The dialogue is typical Pinter with nearly every utterance being repeated by the other person and questioned.  Their waiting is punctuated by the bizarre comings and goings of the hotel’s dumb waiter with its requests for food orders. It was this part of the play that provided the most humour.  Despite excellent performances by Mark Best and Ryan Lainchbury the piece raises more questions than it answers and leaves much of the audience bewildered.

Much more to the taste of the audience is the second piece – Anorak of Fire – a gloriously funny monologue about train spotting. What would appear to be a deadly boring subject turns out to be a joyous piece thanks to the inventive mind of its creator, Stephen Dinsdale.  A second Gus of the evening appears. One Gus Gascoigne faces the audience and addresses them on the subject that has been his obsession since he first heard a train whilst still in his pram.  This obsession has been so strong, he admits, that it caused him to bunk off from kindergarten. He recounts the rapture that he found on his first visit to Crewe at the age of seven. Crewe, he explains, is to train-spotters as Monte Carlo is to James Bond.  The highlight of the evening is the recounting of his only sexual encounter with a girl from Boots named Jacky – a hilarious piece of writing.

Dressed in the traditional spotters costume of trainers, woolly hat and an anorak festooned with badges John Griffiths gives a superlative performance. He manages to portray Gus not only as a naïve buffoon but also to endow him with a form of dignity that his passion bestows.

Words and Music

Gordon Bull

It appears that what London has by-passed, the WTC has bravely seized as an opportunity to celebrate the week-end 75^th birthday of that controversial and great playwright Harold Pinter.  Mind you, the great Alan Bennett said we should remember him with ‘two minutes of silence’.  Make what you will of that!

Once again this remarkable local company has shown us it can tackle successfully a wide variety of stage presentations under Richard Ratcliffe and Pat Lyne’s expert guidance.

I well remember the shock of seeing Pinter’s The Birthday Party as my introduction to his economic style- but what a revelation!  How he pares down conversations and yet manages to convey so much is sheer magic. 

The two excellent protagonists on Saturday in Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter were Ryan Lainchbury as Gus, and Mark Best as Ben.  The opening was masterful as an example of the use of total silence and pause to set the scene in what was their mock cellar, bunker, kitchen or ‘what you like’ as the various extraneous noises, suggestive of gunfire or storm as you wish made contrast.  (The music of Turnage or Tippett leaves one in a similar quandary.) But we know it’s a weird world which demands the fullest concentration.  The emptiness of the final scene sees to that. Are we all mad?