A Curmudgeon’s Guide to Christmas Round Robin Letters
Hope Theatre
Reviewed – 7th December 2017
★★½
“There is a reassuringly relaxed and fun quality to the pair that can’t help but draw us in”
As the Christmas season erupts to dominate the theatre calendar, we can look forward to a stockpile of emails and social media messages to bring in the occasion. The Hope Theatre instead chooses a different path. Focusing on the round robin letters real people have sent over the years, ‘A Curmudgeon’s Guide …’ flicks between the smug, the funny and the tragic from those who choose to update us on their year just gone.
Loosely, the piece is held together through a rough framing device. We are invited into the home of a couple, played by Kate Russell-Smith and Claire Lacey. Over time they have amassed a vast collection of letters from a variety of family, friends and far off acquaintances. They choose to share a few of them with us over the course of just under an hour.
Scott Le Crass’ production begins brightly. The lighting design from Jai Morjaria is comfortable in bathing the play in a glowing, warm tinge. There is a reassuringly relaxed and fun quality to the pair that can’t help but draw us in as they offer us treats and invite us to pull crackers. Some of the initial letters, all collected from a book by Simon Hoggart, are fun and it is a joy to hear some of the outlandishly boastful claims that families have sent over the years. But after a while the repetitious nature of mocking each letter begins to grate. This combines with a poorly developed story behind the characters that fails to draw its audience in.
In Russell-Smith and Lacey, you get the sense of real talent being wasted. Lacey brings a jagged edge to her put downs as Russell-Smith emits a lighter demeanour that is engaging to watch. But they are bogged down with a relationship that is punctuated by increasingly unrealistic stoppages, building to an ending that seemingly had the intention of drawing emotion but comes across as melodramatic and unearned. There is also a hint in parts that the show shares notes of the smugness present in quite a few of the letters.
As an idea there is potentially an interesting concept, but the narrative and conceit are far too separate in execution to make a fully coherent show. Ultimately, ‘A curmudgeon’s guide’ is a muddled package that fails to carry the fun warmth of its beginning.
Reviewed by Callum McCartney
A Curmudgeon’s Guide to Christmas Round Robin Letters
“a tighter script, clearer concept, and more character development needed”
Set in a bizarre and darkly comic world, Flycatcher, written and directed by Gregg Masuak, is about lust, deceit and the darkest parts of ourselves. The play centres around Madelaine, a young waitress with a fascination for creepy crawlies, who becomes involved with Bing, an American happy-go-lucky door-to-door insurance salesman and Olive, a stand-offish art gallery owner with a striking resemblance to Grace Kelly.
The actors made the best of an ambitious but ultimately disappointing script. Emily Arden did a particularly good job of portraying the obsessive and conniving Madelaine. Susanna Wolff and Melissa Dalton were impressive – playing a large number of characters from gossipy waitresses with filthy minds, to obnoxious cutesy makeup salespeople, with precision and excellent comic timing. Nathan Plant and Bruce Kitchener also did well playing a multitude of roles. Plant’s physicality in particular was well done and added to the comedy. Kooky grandma Mae, played by Fiz Marcus, was also very funny, though her presence in some scenes often felt unnecessary.
The main issue with Flycatcher was that it felt dated and out of time and place. Bing’s dialogue, clothes, and obsession with Grace Kelly made him a 1950s American caricature. In contrast, other characters used flip phones and a chunky 90s landline rang throughout the show. The setting was also confusing; many of the characters had American accents yet paid for things in pounds. Perhaps these choices were intentional to emphasise the unsettling world of Flycatcher but overall the concept seemed to miss the mark.
The set was simple yet effective. Islington’s intimate Hope Theatre was transformed into a spider’s web by placing white tape on the floor in a web pattern. During the pre-set four characters stood at the edge of the web while Madelaine lay on the floor at the centre, entangled in the dark mess of the story. The piano music which played at the start of both acts added to the sinister atmosphere but more sound design would have been useful in clarifying the setting of scenes, as this was often unclear.
Overall, the performances were strong and there were funny moments but a tighter script, clearer concept, and more character development were needed to make it the dark comic thriller it could be.
