Some might say Alan Ayckbourn is somewhat of a “marmite playwright” – Rather than being seen as “just alright,” he always tends to be in the “liked or loathed” camp. I have been told that he’s a one trick pony and that his humour can be seen as a little self indulgent but for every negative comment I’ve heard, there have been a lot more positive ones. I firmly put myself in the very pro-Ayckbourn camp and I was looking forward to seeing RBS Theatre’s production of “Public Fear in Private Places” at the Network Theatre in Waterloo.
Upon entering the theatre I was immediately impressed with the staging of the play I was about to see. It was clear that the director had chosen to display all his locations in one set and as someone who is very anti set change, I thought this was an excellent choice! This could have been seen as a brave decision but in my opinion, you have to assume that the audience will have the focus and imagination to concentrate on what the actors are doing without being distracted by what’s going on across the rest of the stage.
The play opened with all the actors entering and exiting from different directions and then appearing again from other entrances. This really gave the impression that every character was as important as the next and set the tone well for what became an insight into the lives of the six characters.
Kat Malseed and Nick Edwards kicked things off as Maleed’s Nicola was looking for a new home whilst Edwards’s Stewart was charged with being the estate agent trying to convince her that a “one and two half’s” bedroom flat was actually a three bedroom.
Both actors showed their hands early as far as characterization goes. Nicola, uptight, high maintenance and formal. Stewart, geeky, humble, friendly and far too weak to be good at his job. With some snappy dialogue and strong acting the opening scene enabled me to relax and it wasn’t long before we had been introduced to the six main characters in the show.
Stewart lived with his sister, enjoyed games of scrabble on a Sunday, had a crush on his office manager and accepted his lot in life without much thought or ambition. Nick Edward’s did an excellent job in the choices he made portraying Stewart. The fidgets, the nervous laugh, the shocked and mischievous facial expressions were all warmly received by the audience and I would imagine he quickly became something of a mums favourite. I had some issues not always being able to see what he was thinking due to him not being open enough to half the audience but that is nitpicking more than anything.
Grace Ross played his sister Imogen. We were led to believe early on in the script that Imogen was probably of a similar vein to Stewart. Imogen stayed home to play said games of scrabble with her brother and despite her efforts often struggled to get dates. Despite a nice opening scene, which even hinted at an incestuous relationship with her brother, it became clear to me that believing this was the Imogen in the script was going to be a big ask.
Not that there was anything wrong with Ross. She acted well, she was cute when she had to be cute, she was feisty when she had to be feisty, she did a fairly decent job of being drunk and her general delivery was fine. In my opinion she was just in the wrong play. Perhaps it would have been as simple as a change of costume and a bit of direction to make her more like her brother but the fact was that the actress I was watching was too young, too good looking, too modern and too cool for me to believe she would struggle to get dates and that she would spend every Sunday playing a board game with Stewart.
Stacie Hassler played Charlotte. Charlotte was a colleague of Stewarts, was deeply religious and had a rather kinky alter ego. Hassler was very focused throughout the show and what stood out for me was her constant eye contact with the other actors. This may seem a trivial thing but it is things like eye contact that make any relationship on stage all the more believable to the audience. Too many actors look around or down in dialogue with other actors as they struggle to lose their inhibitions but I didn’t feel that was the case here.
On the negative side I didn’t really like the way Charlotte’s “big reveal” came about. All the evil smiles at the end scenes with Stewart became a little boring and when we finally saw her in her bondage gear it didn’t really have much of an impact. I also struggled to believe that she was in conflict with herself over the two sides of her personality. Something was missing for me in this portrayal and although I can’t really fault Stacie’s delivery I do feel there were some weak choices made by either the actor or the director in how some of her scenes played out.
Ambrose worked as a bartender in a hotel. His job was an escape from his life as the son of a bed ridden and aggressive father. Left to care for him after his mother’s death we see both sides of him as the ear to the world at work and as a lonely middle aged man at home. Paul Eckersall played the role as a man who was so used to his routine that he took everything in his stride and without fuss. He was a likeable character and although the actor had a few issues with his lines on this particular night his delivery and manner was generally quite believable. I did find though that his scenes at home with Charlotte slowed the play down and out of all the scenes these were the ones where I became slightly disengaged from the play. I did however enjoy his straight man bartender role opposite Will Gunston’s more clownish Dan.
Dan was one of my favourite characters in the play although it was much more the character I enjoyed rather than his role. The actor appeared to me to have taken two of Harry Enfield’s most popular characters and morphed them into one. Part Kevin the Teenager and part Tim “nice but” Dim, Gunston’s portrayal was warm, funny, energetic and even charming. Did I believe he had been an army officer? Not a chance. Did I buy into his relationship with Nicola? Not for a second. Did I think Imogen would have fallen for him? Not in a million years but the truth is I didn’t care. This would probably be seen as negative from a director’s point of view and I am almost annoyed that I am prepared to let the lack of believability slide but on this occasion, it worked.
As it happened the fact that I could never see Dan and Nicola together worked out quite nicely as she ended up throwing him out on his ear. Kat Malseed grew into the play from an acting perspective and it would have been interesting to see her later in the run. At first I thought she was overplaying the character and trying too hard to be the bitchy unforgiving woman that we were meant to be seeing. In the second act though she visibly softened and her performance improved tenfold. As this was only opening night I would imagine she got better as the week went on.
There was actually a seventh character in the play as Ambrose’s dad, Arthur was played from offstage. Most of his lines were insulting towards Charlotte and they were delivered with enthusiasm from Jonny Lyons and provided the audience with some funny moments.
As a director I saw a lot of pluses and a few minus’s in Edo Avraham’s choices for this production. I thought the set choice was excellent and worked well. I like the choice of music and although there were a few cue issues it wasn’t overused and was served primarily for transitional purposes. I thought the blocking worked very well and wasn’t confusing. Smart choices were made with the television and Charlotte’s offstage scene and the lighting was very good too.
My problem was that it was more style than substance. As much as I enjoyed the play it would have been so much better if I believed in some of the relationships between the characters. I would go as far as to say that despite enjoyable individual performances some of the actors were possibly either miscast from a chemistry point of view or the relationships took a backseat to the staging of the play. Despite this though it was a good production and I look forward to seeing what the company has to offer in the future.
As usual just remember this is only one blokes’ review of one performance.
Until next time.
The Bloke