The selection of the three particular one-acters from the original nine was particularly skilful.  Red Peppers gave an overview of the entertainers, Hands across the Sea a view of the more absurd elements in those that constituted the audience, while Family Album took us inside the homes of such people when they were not at play. Truly a snapshot, ever so slightly exaggerated (!) of Coward’s world.

The delightful song and dance routine and the wonderfully corny but “comfortable” jokes brought to life  in Red Peppers by Andrew Donovan and Katherine Attwood took us straight to the  Musical Hall.  The back stage stalwart Alf played by Nathan Farell, the drunken left handed conductor (Steve Nankervis), the cigar smoking and crusty Mr Edwards (Wally Cross Gower) and Mabel Grace, the ubiquitous ham actress past her best, beautifully portrayed by Carol McGlone gave us the very essence of the Music Hall!  One could practically smell the grease paint.  A splendid start to the evening.

The Coward/Lawrence partnership is, of course, legendary. The Nomads’s pastiche/entr’acte was delightful, it looked right, sounded right and by golly, it felt right.

When the curtain went up on the set of “Hands Across the Sea”, the audience broke in to spontaneous applause.  It was beautiful.  Its very simplicity and starkness was an eloquent statement of the elegance of the Art Deco period. Well done all those set builders!

Froth and wit are some of the more obvious features of Coward’s writing and he is a delight to play.  The cast of  “Hands Across the Sea” caught the mood wonderfully. Every home should have a Walters (Carol McGlone).  She became progressively more fed up with each ring of the doorbell and made no attempt to hide it.  The dapper Commander Gilpin (Steven Nankervis) and his gloriously breathless wife, Piggie (Gilly Fick), set the scene for the chaos of things to come.

Lieut.  Alistair Corbett (Andrew Donovan) “swanked” things up beautifully.  The arrival of the Wadhursts provided a wonderful foil for the excesses of the three.  Their quiet and confused restraint, coupled with the telephone wire which seemed to have life of its own and which was intent in ensnaring the hapless Mrs Wadhurst (Diane Nichols) created side splitting comic business.   As though that wasn’t enough, enter the Hon Clare Wedderburn breathless, fluttery and wonderfully OTT played by Mary Parsons and the delightfully graceful (even “in his cups”) Major Gosling.  Gary Griffiths’ reading of Gosling was a masterly mixture of swaying, dancing and constant cocktail mixing.  Hugely funny!  This was in stark contrast to the almost speechless Mr Wadhurst (Wally Ross Gower who showed us how to act with barely a word to say.) It was wonderful.  He did not drop his concentration for a moment.

Adding to all this hilarity was the unfortunate Mr Burnham (Nathan Farrell.)  He too had an almost non-speaking part but made a huge contribution to the humour especially when in receipt of an unexpected cocktail as Mrs Wadhurst left and thrust it into his hand, but even more so as he gave up the fight and crept up to the sofa to deposit the plans he had only come to deliver.

In Family Album, we really did get the photographic grouping of the family following the death of old Mr Featherways.  Here the ensemble playing was polished and measured.  The attempt at frivolity, or at the very least, even the lightening of the atmosphere was kept in check by the highly “correct” Lavinia Featherways.

While the whole group demonstrated really skilled and beautiful playing in this piece, I feel special mention must be made of the controlled and gradual development of Lavinia by Diane Nichols.  It made for a tremendously effective moment when she revealed that she and Burrows had burnt the most recent will.   She of high moral tone had burst forth in an act of deliberate revolt.

Her companion in this ‘wicked deed” was the hitherto deaf butler, Burrows.  Is deafness not part of the requirement of “butling”?   Wally Ross Gower gave a magnificent reading of this seemingly small but pivotal role.  He created a perfect English butler and timed his “revelatory” line to perfection.  The kind of butler our friend Coward would definitely employ.

The costume throughout was magnificent.  I particularly loved Carol McGlone’s gown in the Red Peppers but it is very difficult to fault any of the dresses. The set again in the Family Album was beautifully detailed and the lighting did what all good lighting should do, it showed us the scene!

All in all this was a very enjoyable evening and one of the best I have experienced at this lovely little theatre.

Three short comic plays for the price of one ticket!

A top notch cast perform a wonderful trio of classic Coward comedies which encompass vaudeville, social satire, physical humour and pastiche.

Here is wit, music and fun.‘

Tonight at 8.30 is a cycle of ten one act plays which were originally played over three evenings. Not all of them are humorous but the three selected here are all comic. The plays have no connection to one another but a small company of actors perform a variety of rôles in them.
Red Peppers
George & Lily Pepper are a husband and wife act in a touring music hall. Their act has become rather tired and, between the musical numbers Has Anyone Seen Our Ship? and Men About Town, their life backstage has become an extension of vaudeville quick fire patter as the bickering couple drink beer and slang the Theatre Manager and the Musical Director. However, ‘he who laughs last….‘

Hands Across the Sea
Two bemused visitors accept a casual invitation from a fashionably smart couple to drop in at their Mayfair flat. However, in their enthusiasm, the hosts have invited such a horde of shrill glitterati to their cocktail party that amongst the arrivals, departures, telephone calls and flowing alcohol inevitable confusion abounds.

Family Album
It is 1860 and the mourning Featherway family gather to hear the will of their deceased father. Warmed by glasses of Madeira wine they begin to reminisce, old songs are revived, former games played and more glasses drunk.  Reticence is overcome and pretence becomes abandoned as the party becomes increasingly lively.  An amazing truth is about to emerge.

In addition to these one act plays there will be a musical interlude in the style of Coward.

Laughter does something special to people and we laughed a LOT through the Friday evening performance of Cranford. Mrs Gaskell has a brilliant way of making us look at ourselves and for our rejection of people for ”bad• manners.   In the case of Mr Holbrook, having eaten peas from a knife was never again acceptable in ”polite Cranford society•.  He was not allowed to marry the woman he loved because her parents felt he was socially unsuitable!  She, poor Miss Jenkins was doomed to the life of lonely, broken hearted ”old maid•.  Such indeed was her love for him, that when she heard he had died, she wasted away for several months and wore semi mourning.

The fragile Miss Matty Jenkins, played with great sympathy and delicacy by Diane Nicholls, became the focus and a wonderful foil for all her devoted friends. Miss Pole (Jane MacIntyre) provided us with wonderful moments of comedy especially on the subject of the wisdom of remaining unmarried and the wickedness of men in general.  Even the local Doctor, player with Pickwickian good humour and geniality by Ian Nicholls was open to suspicion.

Miss Matty‘s  other ”dear• friends, Miss Barker (Gilly Fick) and  Miss  Forrester (Collete  Wighton) provided  moments  of  hugely funny interchanges as they vied with each other and Miss Pole for the most ”informed• of the three of all events in the community and also of any perceived ”rules of etiquette•

There were some hilarious moments of ”business• when any one of the ”ladies• arrived or was present at Miss Matty‘s house.  There was a strict routine for a response to a knock at the door.  Firstly, someone had to rush to the window to see who it was before the ladies arranged themselves either on the sofa or about the room so that the maid, Martha (Charlotte Pennington) could announce the guest(s) ”properly•.  There was one wonderful moment when the three •friends• were seated on the sofa.  Miss Jenkins wanted Martha to use her silver tray for serving tea to the Hon. Mrs Jamieson and Lady Glenmire.  The tray being stored, for safe keeping, underneath the sofa as Martha approached to retrieve it, all the ladies, gathered their skirts and lifted their legs in unison.  Hilariously unladylike behaviour!

Martha, in fact, provided considerable humour in her own right.  Her ineptitude and clumsiness, her lack of ”finesse• when introducing visitors etc. added to the side splitting events.  Her face and gestures and the singularly inelegant progress across the stage meant we looked forward to her every entry. Her exaggerated Devonian (?) accent was in stark contrast to refined tones of the ”ladies.•

The sweet and ever considerate Mary, however, trained and  groomed  Martha during the course of the play.  Mary, played by Bronwyn Elliott, coped brilliantly with the rather sugary, ever so sensible but gentle and her generally ”over nice• character with consummate ease. Her ever-smiling face and tender ministering to Miss Jenkins were the very epitome of refined genteel female behaviour!

Into all this refinement and orderliness walked Lady Glenmire (Mary Parsons.)  She really set the cat among the pigeons and created an all too down-to-earth  persona.  She managed the role beautifully and was a most wonderful contrast to her snobby, arrogant sister-in-law, the Hon. Mrs Jamieson (Judy Tweedale.)   The set of the Hon. Mrs Jamieson‘s head, her demeanour and even the way she seated herself spoke of ”breeding.•   Her mode of speech confirmed the wholeŒ. here was a real lady!

No Nomads production would be complete without an appearance by Nathan Farrell.  In this production, he created just the right note with his cameo role of Jem Hearn.  Here we had the salt of the earth, the slightly uncouth chap who has a heart of gold and ”gets it right• despite his lack of education and refinement!

The set was delightful.  It provided enough space for the full-skirted ladies, and the clumsy Martha and it never looked uncomfortable. The stairs gave a nice lift to the back section of the stage and was always an interesting entry and exit point that coincidentally conferred a sense of status on those who used it.  This was Miss Matty‘s home, her stairs and only she and her ”sweetest, dear friend• Mary were allowed to use it.  The notable exceptions being when Martha ”forgot her place• and when Miss Pole decided to stay the night for reasons of ”personal safety•.

Jill Asher is to be congratulated on the variety and choice of costume.  There were just enough change to be interesting and the choice of colour was perfectly matched for each character. I particularly liked Lady Glenmire‘s costume.

I loved the choice of music too, but found it frustrating that it wasn‘t identified.  However it was just right.   Just right too was the lighting. The balance was lovely and the momentary ”blaze• when the old love letters were burnt added a sense of finality to Miss Matty‘s dreams.

There is so much I would like to say about this production but time and paper make that impossible.  However, I think this is among the best productions I have ever seen at the Nomads.  John Norris  and Annabelle Farrell are much to be congratulated.  We all know how difficult it is to make comedy work.  This pitched the comedy at just the right level and the casting was excellent.  I can‘t wait for the theatre‘s next offering.

One thought.  I can remember my grandmother putting paper on her carpet to prevent fading.  I remember her peeping at the window before opening the door and hiding of her valuables in the bed and under low furniture.   Am I therefore too old for this writing lark I ask myself?  It is very worrying!

Polly

Inhabited mainly by the fairer sex, the community of Cranford thrives on mutual support and gossip. The sheltered peace of gentility is threatened by financial disaster, imagined burglaries and the ever present intricacies of social etiquette that dominates daily life.
Made popular by the BBC’s adaptation, the non-stop liveliness of the irresistible characters and their adventures, absurdities and tragedies provide heart warming entertainment which will capture the hearts of audiences.

The cast is:

Miss Matty                                     Diane Nichols
Jem                                                   Nathan Farrell
Martha                                             Charlotte Pennington
Mary                                                  Bronwyn Elliot
Miss Pole                                          Jane MacIntyre
Mrs Forrester                                Collet Wightman
Miss Barker                                     Gilly Fick
Mr Hoggins                                      Ian Nichols
The Hon Mrs Jamerson            Judy Tweedale
The Countess of Glenmare      Mary Parsons

and the Director is John Norris

Reviews of Splendour
Studio Theatre
April 2010
Directed by Ian Nichols

Playwright Abi Morgan explains that, in Splendour, she is ‘trying to make sense of something that is overwhelming, trying to meet people on the other side of a big experience’. All she does, though, is to leave the audience thinking that she is still seeking as there are few pointers in this enigmatic, extended one-act piece, with its overlapping, slowly developing story as to how relationships between the four women involved will ultimately play out.
What Splendour offered was a vehicle for a quartet of fine actors to showcase their abilities close to the audience in the Nomad Studio. In turn they all talked more or less directly to the audience, reflected to themselves and, occasionally, conversed with each other, often in brief non-sequiturs yet cue bite was generally taut.

Mary Parsons made an impact as Micheleine, wife of a top military man in an un-named Eastern European country. She had the perfect measure of a vain, pampered woman, living her life through her husband’s glittering but now possibly crumbling career.

Diane Nichols, her less affluent friend, Genevieve, showed that she was not the ally initially thought, with an emotional if somewhat obscurely motivated breakdown.

Anna Langridge interpreted photojournalist Kathryn, the most strong-willed character, with clarity.

Wendy Denny was the unappealing Gilma – more interested in  filching whatever she could and, increasingly, reluctant to carry out her duties as interpreter.
If nothing else, Splendour, directed by Ian Nichols, enabled four talented actors to demonstrate their undoubted skills.

Tony Flook

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This was a very ‘different’ play in all respects and the intimacy of the studio certainly added to the intensity. Abi Morgan’s grippingly disturbing play depicts an evening in the lives of four women. The audience is invited to supply the missing imagery of the dictator of an unnamed eastern European state who never arrives – it is suggested in the portrait of him a photojournalist has come to take; the painting that was an artist’s final gesture of dissent, and his presence is felt in the city streets as they are blockaded and bombed. We are shown four characters trapped in a room- waiting. But no sooner is this claustrophobic scenario established than it is twisted and shaken in a pressure cooker.

As the absent dictator’s wife (Mary Parsons), her oldest friend (Diane Nichols), the photographer (Anna Langridge) and interpreter (Wendy Denny) sit anxiously drinking and making small talk, the scenes of the evening they are passing begin to repeat, like a jammed film, and shards of inner monologue are inter cut with dialogue – almost in a ‘stream of consciousness’. Secrets and painful histories emerge as the scenes are replayed. It’s an intriguing structure, which the cast clearly enjoyed working with. It must have been a massively difficult piece to master and the script calls for the actors to have total command of their lines – there are countless conversational loops to trap the unwary and a momentary loss of concentration would have spelt disaster. Those pitfalls were avoided.

The set was simple and stark cleverly maximising the very limited space. Lighting was also very effective. Movement was of necessity tight, but precise, and every ounce was squeezed out of the area. I particularly liked the floor – and floors are one of Ian’s specialties! It made the most of the studio. The cast handled a very difficult script with aplomb and there were some fine performances; the intense scream from Mary Parsons was piercing and full of drama, but suitably controlled so as not to deafen the audience member seated closest (who was me!!) but it lost nothing of it’s impact. Diane Nichols’ emotional breakdown was entirely convincing – I couldn’t help but feel that it was probably genuine since the lines were so very demanding! I’m not certain who was more challenged – the audience or the cast – and it certainly challenged me, but it was clear that everyone rose to the challenge and should be congratulated.

Gilly Fick

Actors and audience share an intimate, ‘warts and all‘,’ space, especially as, in a mad moment, I chose to place the audience on three sides of the acting area of approximately 25 square metres. I have had to recall that, despite the wonderful tolerance of theatre-goers, nobody only wants to see an actor’s back for an evening. I’ve never played 3D chess but I don’t imagine it is that much more difficult!

However, in case any of the foregoing is in danger of putting you off seeing ‘Splendour’ let me assure you that you are destined for an exciting hour and a half of theatre at its most vivid and challenging. You will also be witnessing some fine performances from the four actresses; Mary, Diane, Anna and Wendy are already, at half way through the rehearsal period, producing some truly astonishing and riveting performances. The intimacy of the Studio will, I am sure, only increase the claustrophobia of the four women’s plight as they await the return of the dictator. Be with them in the dying embers of the regime. It may not be an easy play but it is a rewarding one.

Ian Nichols

‘Splendour’s’ structure is non-linear as the claustrophobic scenario is shaken and re-arranged like a kaleidoscope.  It is not an easy play, but a rewarding one.

Wed 14 to Sat 17 April in the studio.  45 seats only.  Tickets 9.00.  Performances begin at 8pm.

The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol

Public officials who are in denial about their own  incompetence!   Officials who are guilty of fraud, greed or hypocrisy.  Sounds familiar these days!

The Nomads will be performing The Government Inspector at the Nomad Theatre, Bishopsmead Parade, East Horsley from Tuesday to Saturday 10 -14 March at 8pm.

Nikolai Gogol’s comedy was first performed in 1836 in Tsarist Russia, a society supposedly very different from our own.  Yet as one character says,  “He doesn’t pay his bill, he must be a government inspector!”   Change inspector for any one of the people described in the news as those who cheat the system or don’t pay their way and you quickly see the play’s relevance.

The Government Inspector is set in a small town where corruption is a way of life and the Mayor and his cronies live well at the expense of shopkeepers and townspeople.  Their world is turned upside down when they hear that an inspector is coming to report on them.

The characters are preposterous.  The postmistress drinks heavily but also uses the mail as reading material for her leisure hours.  The Director of Education is a pathetic, cringing personality, scared of his own teachers.  The Magistrate is a womaniser but why does he keep geese in the courtroom?  The Health Commissioner has sold the hospital beds and doesn’t believe in using medicine on patients, while the doctor only speaks German throughout.  The Mayor is tyrannical, ambitious, smug and self-serving, yet he has to contend with a wife and daughter as bizarre as any of the other characters.

Into this mix comes a penniless traveller with a talent for fantasy and an eye to the main chance.  Unwittingly at first but with increasing cunning he takes advantage of them all.

Alastair Beaton, one of the writers of Drop the Dead Donkey and Spitting Image, has adapted the play.  He is an award winning writer who has brought his own satirical wit to the task of translating Gogol’s masterpiece.

Director Ian Nichols says, “This is a really wonderful show to work on and I am thoroughly enjoying directing comedy.”

Tickets are 11.00.  Call the box office on 01483 284747 on Saturdays from 10.00 to 12.30 pm.  Leave a message on the answerphone at other times or visit www.nomadtheatre.com.

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