“This delighful soufflé of a play is a sure-fire hit”
The Mill at Sonning is a jewel of a theatre unlike any other. A picturesque and very derelict watermill was converted into a playhouse some 40 years ago and the same family run it to this day, serving up a sustaining combo of buffet dinner in the restaurant followed by good old-fashioned theatrical entertainment in the newly airconditioned 215 seat theatre. It’s little wonder audiences are so enthusiastic and loyal.
Neil Simon’s romantic comedy ‘Barefoot in the Park’ was a hit for Robert Redford when it opened on Broadway in 1963. Set in a flakey fifth floor apartment at the top of a New York brownstone, the play’s theme is young love and what happens when opposites attract.
Buttoned-up newbie attorney Paul Bratter (Jonny Labey, Eastenders’ Paul Coker) thinks that slipping into a less formal tie while he works on his legal papers is the perfect way to spend the evening. His wife of six days Corrie (Hannah Pauley) has other ideas. A boozy Albanian dinner setting up her mother with a Hungarian lothario (splendidly flamboyant James Simmons)? No problem. The cracks in this new relationship begin to show just as soon as the newly weds attempt to settle into their less than ideal new apartment.
Labey is well-cast in the role of Paul. He has excellent characterisation and delivery, and a fire-cracker turnaround in the final scene. Hannah Pauley fizzes with charm as his mismatched wife Corrie Bratter. Rachel Fielding as her mother has some scene-stealing moments as she has her own little epiphany in the second half. There’s a nicely delivered running gag about the inaccessibilty of the apartment and some witty repartee from Oliver Stanley as the repairman Harry Pepper.
This delighful soufflé of a play is a sure-fire hit for the Mill at Sonning. Great performances of some sassy dialogue, tight direction (Robin Herford), period outfits (Natalie Titchener) and a proper time machine of a set (Michael Holt). One happy audience guaranteed.
“every character vivid and witty as the play builds to its satisfyingly mad climax”
Sir Alan Ayckbourn is probably England’s best-known living playwright, and almost certainly its most successful. With more than 80 plays to his credit, he’s celebrated for a string of biting comedies that poke enthusiastic fun at the adulterous middle classes. At 80, he’s still writing, but was at his high point in the seventies and eighties, with a record-breaking five plays once running simultaneously in the West End. These days he’s also often the subject of university theses, with some seeing more than sparkling comedy and huge box office success in the darker side of his writing.
‘Ten Times Table’ was written in 1977, after the playwright endured a year of seemingly interminable committee meetings as his Scarborough theatre prepared to move. Yes, at least in the first half, this is ‘a predominantly sedentary farce’ about committee meetings, according to its author. It’s also something of an allegory for the politics of its day, when union activism was just taking off, and Margaret Thatcher was preparing to take power. But don’t be put off! In the hands of this team of seasoned Ayckbourn performers, directed by the excellent Robin Herford, an excellent evening’s entertainment is guaranteed.
The play opens as Robert Daws (Tuppy Glossop in Jeeves & Wooster) enters the darkened ballroom of a tatty three star hotel. He and Deborah Grant (playing his wife) are the mainstays of the play, which has a large cast by Ayckbourn’s standards. As Ray, Daws has a repertoire of funny vocal mannerisms that are just right for a pedantic committee Chairman. With her big hair and bigger speeches, there’s more than a passing resemblance to Margaret Thatcher in Grant’s smart performance as his wife. Her protagonist is a Marxist teacher of modern history who becomes obsessed with bringing to life a working class hero in a historical pageant (an excellent performance by Craig Gazey, Graeme Proctor in ‘Coronation Street’). The rest of the cast are equally strong, with every character vivid and witty as the play builds to its satisfyingly mad climax.
It’s also worth mentioning some satisfying design backing up the performers in this traditional-looking show (Michael Holt, with sound and lighting by Dan Samson and Jason Taylor).
A play about committees and the posturing follies of British political life? In these capable hands we’re guaranteed a good evening that brought appreciative whistles and cheers from a good-natured audience at the start of its short Windsor run.
Reviewed by David Woodward
Photography by Pamela Raith
Ten Times Table
Theatre Royal Windsor until 1st February then UK tour continues
