Review: Me and Me Dad. Reform Theatre Company.

Me and Me Dad is written by Nick Lane, writer of Housebound and My Favourite Summer and performed at the Derby Guildhall (on tour) by a talented cast of three by the Reform Theatre Company. The show originally started life through the Hull Truck Theatre Company though its programme and practice of developing promising writers and encouraging new theatre pieces.




The story of Me and Me Dad begins just after Dave’s mum dies and Dave has to make a decision about what to do for the best. Like many family units, Dave’s mum always did the cooking in the family household and was very good at it. On the death of his wife, Pete, Dave’s dad, suddenly finds he has no idea how to cook. He may be inept and ignorant in the kitchen, but he’s not stupid. In fact, like his son, he is very likeable but this is going to be one long grind in the kitchen. So, putting his failing acting career on hold for a month, Dave returns home to look after his father, primarily to teach him how to cook. Well, that’s the theory, anyway. Playwright Nick Lane mines an emotionally rich seam of a very personal story and the play tackles an even more difficult and individualised subject than that of unrequited love that fed the prequel, My Favourite Summer. This time round the characters of Dave and his father are discovering how to fend for themselves, a loss of their own identities and how a young man can suddenly be forced to be a parent to his parent. Built into the story is the notion of the fear of getting things wrong, for all parties.

The two male leads are brilliantly and realistically played by David Walker as Pete and Ryan Cerenko as his frustrated son, Dave. Walker brings the husband and father who cannot let go of his dead wife poignantly to life and, to quote his son, “hovers around like a moth in shoes”. This character is no cardboard cut-out dad figure. Nick Lane has created a wonderfully believable character in Pete Lee, a man full of human variety; from obstinate to silly and full of lovable characteristics, even if very much set in his ways. Even his constant farting is somehow endearing.

Cerenko has the task of carrying the play through narration and acting out the often frustrating journey of the son in his mid-twenties. He is often subtly put down by his father and by the mad neighbour Joyce (Susan Mitchell) who treats him as if he is still a small boy. Cerenko carries this role off to perfection, instantly likeable as Dave, a character full of fluctuating confidence, one minute confident of his ability to teach his dad to cook and the next confused and hurt by his dad’s actions especially when his father tries to chat up his girlfriend, Susie.

The ragged jigsaw of a set, the family home, looks as blown apart as the family unit. As the play opens fine dust is rising in the living room as father and son are left alone to cope on the day of the funeral. It looks as if an emotional bomb has gone off but miraculously the furniture and the two estranged men are still standing.

The acting and direction are superb throughout but the acting honours must go to Susan Mitchell who plays the three female roles of Jean, the late departed mum and wife; Joyce, a loud and batty neighbour and terrible cook; and Susie the confidently brash girlfriend of Dave. As time flits back and forth throughout the play Mitchell inhabits each role to perfection: the caring and softly spoken mother Jean, very emotionally strong near the end in a tear jerking scene. Mitchell then becomes Aunty Joyce – a loud but well-meaning neighbour who cooks for and secretly fancies Pete and finally, as a complete transformation, we have the girlfriend Susie, smart, sassy, sexy and somewhat manipulative.

The dialogue is funny, touching, occasionally emotionally raw and judiciously uses a clever technique of two characters saying the same line in unison to reinforce the notion of family bonds. There are good displays of emotive bonding and the very believable cast’s chemistry works well to create a very engaging and rewarding evening at the theatre.

Me and Me Dad is directed by Keith Hukin

This review was originally written for The Public Reviews website 25th April 2013

Review by Phil Lowe.

Serious acting? Don't make me laugh...

Corpse. Noun and verb. Verb theatrical. Slang. 1 intr. Spoil a piece of acting by forgetting one's lines, laughing etc. 2 tr. Confuse (an actor) in the performance of his or her part. b. spoil (a piece of acting) by some blunder. Definition from the CONCISE OXFORD DICTIONARY.

I can be a bit of a giggler and it seems the more serious the acting piece is the greater the compulsion to laugh in inappropriate places becomes. My issue is not necessarily the nature of the piece but the person I am acting opposite. It boils down to the way a word is said, a particular look in the face of the other actor during a scene or sometimes just the position of the body. I can honestly say I have never ruined a play or a scene by laughing or giggling, but there have been some close calls.

The habit can develop during rehearsals when you discover the 'funny' thing by accident or design and you collapse with laughter and then try to regain the equilibrium. Looking at the other actor between the eyes, not in the eyes, but between the eyes and above the bridge of the nose can help. But once you start down the route of self reprimanding “Stop it! Now just stop it!” the chuckle muscles have another reason to flex themselves again and again. I have seen actors smack themselves around the face to cure this disease. That makes me laugh even more. Occasionally we have had to move to a completely different scene to regain normality.

Turning your body and face away from the audience can help you focus on the seriousness of the matter, but they will often see the shoulders going up and down.

There are theatrical stories of some cruel actors (often bored on long runs) who play tricks on their fellow actors by various means to see if they can make them laugh i.e. placing objects in places they shouldn't be or writing funny notes for the actors and putting them in a 'serious' stage letter and waiting for the actor to crack up. In the industry there are several very established actors such as Judy Dench and Patrick Stewart who are inveterate gigglers.

I have a had few memorable times on stage and in rehearsals when I have had to contain my laughter and really work very hard at getting through a particular scene without corpsing. The ones that stand out are working with a lovely actor called Piotr for the first time in a musical play called Poppy. I was playing Tao Kuan – Emperor of China and Piotr was Lin Tse Tsii – Commissioner to China. There was a particular scene where Piotr (wonderfully expressive face) was spouting some serious verse and he just looked so comical. I could hardly stop myself from laughing each night and was mightily relieved to escape from the scene and into the safety of the wings without breaking into gales of laughter. In fact the Poppy play was so full of silly situations and silly names that I'm surprised that more of us didn't giggle more on stage.

I have often had similar situations acting with my friend, Alison Hope and in the play, Abigail's Party we played tetchy husband and wife. In one part of the play her character was supposed to come on stage out of breath and giggling. To achieve this realistically she asked me to tickle her each night as we waited in the wings and then she would explode on to the set as Beverley in tucks.

In the 1980s I went to Derby Playhouse to see a professional production of a Joe Orton play where there was a live actor playing the part of a corpse. Must of the time he was hidden from view behind a piece of furniture or a screen. On the night I went I saw this 'corpse' subtly scratch their left leg. I nearly died laughing.

 

"Look here Mrs Elvsted, at this document." "I'm not looking! You've written a rude word."

Review: I Was A Rat! at Nottingham Playhouse

This fabulous stage adaptation of Phillip Pullman’s very popular book, I Was a Rat! has arrived for the first time in the UK via the Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company, in association with Nottingham Playhouse, Ipswich New Wolsey Theatre and Teatro Kismet, Bari (Italy). It is adapted and directed by Teresa Ludovico with an English text version by David Watson.

Ludovico is the artistic director of Teatro Kismet in Bari, southern Italy and is best known in the UK for her thrilling and physical productions of Beauty and the Beast, The Snow Queen and The Mermaid Princess. Watson joined the Birmingham Rep's scheme for young writers in 1999 and has gone on to write twelve plays including I Was a Rat!

 

 

Author, Philip Pullman’s glorious and gripping story, of a boy called Roger who fervently believes he was a rat, is brought to life on the Nottingham Playhouse stage until 13^th April 2013. It combines humour, fantasy, and a stunningly theatrical adventure and this moving and darkly comic tale slowly reveals its roots to a well loved fairy tale.

As the play unfolds, a scruffy young boy knocks on the door of an elderly London couple – Bob and Joan. They were unable to have a child of their own and take the boy in, feed him and give him a name. The lad claims, over and over, that he was a rat and is puzzled to be in an alien world full of human beings. The strange, but instantly likeable lad, begins to act just like the creature he claims he was by playfully rolling around and gnawing on anything he can find, including pencils. Bob and Joan, lovingly played by Tyrone Huggins and Lorna Gayle, try to teach him some manners but are unsure what to do with him for the best. They decide to venture out with Roger to the authorities for them to sort the matter out. Unfortunately, they have no luck finding a home through these channels as neither the police, the school or the town hall clerks will do anything to help. The rat boy is very much an innocent in an unfamiliar world.

 

 

Roger instinctively runs away from a thrashing on two or three occasions and, once out of the protection offered by Bob and Joan, Roger is exploited and abused by all and sundry including The Philosopher Royal and the owners of a very scary Commedia del arte style circus and even a bunch of urchins that act like Fagin's gang. He is treated as a freak yet desperately tries to see the best in all his tormentors. In his despair he ends up imprisoned and sentenced to 'stermination. Will Bob and Joan rescue him? Will the lovable Roger ever find happiness again?

As in the style of Italian Commedia del arte, the Playhouse stage is mainly bare. Through a combination of thrilling lighting effects, theatrics, mime and dance and the tremendously talented cast, whose witty physicality and engaging fluidity allow the story to unfold, each moment becomes a truly magical piece of theatre. There is a feeling of improvisation bursting from the performers but the show is magnificently rehearsed to the point where the actors are very confident and professional in their story telling expertise and appear to be 'playing' with the piece. The audience loved each new event and the style of presentation.

The outlandishly fabulous costumes and live music give the piece a historical context and a nightmarish sense of the absurd, ranging from the bizarre and silly, tall hatted, policemen to the garish tormenting clowns of the circus and the eerie beaked politicians and macabre, Judge and Jury. All was beautifully and energetically choreographed and each episode of the story of the rat boy carried the spectacle along in and easy to follow but, often unpredictable way.

Various props were used including regular usage of a very tall chair that allows the performers not only to make terrific use of the stage area but also, to give an advantage of loftiness or power to particular characters as Roger encounters them. The various fight scenes were spectacularly done as were the energetic dance sequences performed by Fox Jackson-Keen, as Roger. He is a fine actor and dancer and has previously played the lead in the West End Musical, Billy Elliot and Roger in the Birmingham Rep production.

The story's local newspaper, the Daily Scourge, was a common theme throughout with the news hounds vocally 'hounding' the 'Monster Rat in the Sewer' and exploiting every possible angle to sell the papers through scandal and sleaze. The scene in the sewers with the scared police officer seeking out 'the monster' was priceless, at once dark and scary and then comical as the two meet head to head.

There are some stunning quick changes from the main cast of eight to the point that the audience didn't even realise that certain actors were playing two or three characters in one scene. All of the multi-talented cast were superb, including the Playhouse youth group as the urchins.

The posters for the show recommend the minimum age of audience to be seven plus. It is an intelligent show for all the family but not for the tiny tots. This is one of those funny and intelligent shows you would happily go and repeatedly see in order to catch all the theatricality again and again.

Review: I Love Derby. Hardgraft Theatre Company

This review was originally written for The Public Reviews.

Originally posted at http://www.thepublicreviews.com/i-love-derby-derby-guildhall/


“Nothing at all ordinary about this comedy”

The comic story of Joyce and Burt Priory and their extraordinary day is heralded by an engaging and lively postman (David Crowely) who immediately connects with the audience to get them in the mood for the localised comedy written by Mark Whiteley of Hardgraft Theatre Company.

We discover frizzy haired Joyce Priory (Rayyah McCaul) as she is opening the charity shop as a volunteer. She is excited at the prospect of meeting Darren Dawes – a new pop sensation – who has been scheduled to officially open the new charity shop. Otherwise it is just an ordinary day. Things are about to dramatically change and take the ordinary into the extraordinary, with hilarious and touching consequences. The interval literally ends with a bang as a carrier bag containing a revolver, a ski mask and a tatty paper bag full of fifty pound notes is found in the charity shop and threatens to throw a spanner in the works of this ordinary day. Has the husband been killed? What will they do with the money? Will Darren Dawes turn up?

The writer, Mark Whitely, also plays Burt Priory in this fast paced production and there is a great sense of fun and camaraderie between the three players, McCaul, Crowely and Whiteley. McCaul and Whiteley particularly shine as a very believable and lovable husband and wife team on the horns of several comical and moral dilemmas. Their witty dialogue often has the audience in tears of laughter and spontaneous clapping during the play. This is especially true during a very amusing, partly mimed reconstruction, of husband Burt giving his terribly nervous wife a driving lesson.

Overall this production is enhanced by great comic timing and lovable, well drawn characters. It is obviously written from the heart. Croweley offers great support work through his humorous interpretations of the postman, a policeman and a potential cross dresser.

As you might expect in a play called I Love Derby there are references a plenty to the city of Derby that amused the appreciative Derby audience. As this is a touring production and changes its town name at each venue the writer and cast have to be applauded for working with the changes and keeping the comedy fresh for each new audience.

The set design was a simple set of screens festooned with clothes and detritus that one might find in any charity shop across the UK. The sound effects were spot on, often helping the action along and creating comic moments of its own.

The play at the Derby Guildhall is well directed by Keith Hukin who also directs for Yorkshire’s Reform Theatre.

Richard Griffiths. RIP.

I was very sorry to hear today of the death of Richard Griffiths, one of Britain's most celebrated character actors, who died from complications following heart surgery. The stage and screen performer, who played Uncle Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter films, was 65. The married actor, was born in Thornaby-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, and grew up caring for his deaf parents and was awarded an OBE for services to drama in 2008. He was a Tony-winning character actor and an inspiration to many actors for his subtle and often quietly comic roles.

 

 

I personally remember him for many of his roles and particularly for his hilarious role as an accountant who falls in love with a pig about to be slaughtered in the Handmade Films movie, A Private Function, and for his role as the quarrelsome chef/detective in the television sitcom, Pie In The Sky. I loved that show and the depth he brought to it.

Griffiths died yesterday at the University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire. Sir Nicholas Hytner, director of the National Theatre, said that, “Griffiths's unexpected death would devastate his "army of friends". Mr Hytner, also said, “Richard Griffiths wasn’t only one of the most loved and recognisable British actors – he was also one of the very greatest and his performance in Alan Bennett's, The History Boys, as Hector, the charismatic teacher, was quite overwhelming: a masterpiece of wit, delicacy, mischief and desolation, often simultaneously.”

Daniel Radcliffe, today led tributes to the actor whose "encouragement, tutelage and humour" made work "a joy". Radcliffe, who also performed with Griffiths ( RG as Martin Dysart) in the stage play Equus, said: "Richard was by my side during two of the most important moments of my career.”

 

He continues, "In August 2000, as I nervously started on my first Harry Potter film he made me feel at ease and seven years later, we embarked on Peter Schaffer's play, Equus, together. It was my first time doing a play but, terrified as I was, his encouragement, tutelage and humour made it a joy. In fact, any room he walked into was made twice as funny and twice as clever just by his presence. I am proud to say I knew him." (Source: internet tributes)

 

 

Aside from the Harry Potter films, Richard Griffiths was most famous for his role as the gloriously camp Uncle Monty in the cult film favourite, Withnail And I. He had a busy and varied career in the theatrical arts and fairly recently played the charming Monsieur Frick in the popular film, Hugo.

Well, “ Dear boy, dear boy” I will miss you being here on earth to entertain us on our screens and stages with your avuncular charm, wit and impish mischief. My condolences to your family. We never met but you touched my heart and made me laugh. Thank you.

Phil Lowe.

Advice from a recent graduate of RADA's Set Construction course.

Reproduced from The Lace Market Theatre' magazine - The Boards.

Writer Phil Lowe recently spoke to former Lace Market Theatre member, Janine Forster, about her acceptance and experiences on the Scenic Construction MA Course at RADA over the last two years.

She had the opportunity to study in the Academy's carpentry and steel fabrication workshops, working with professional directors and designers on the Academy's public productions and had the chance to visit various professional organisations such as the National Theatre and Royal Opera House.

The course gives students the opportunity to gain practical and theoretical knowledge of construction materials and their properties, carpentry and joinery, building, erecting and maintaining sets and the mechanics of scenery handling and rigging including theatrical flying. On the practical side great emphasis was placed on the safe usage of various tools such as routers, jigsaws, band, table, wall saws, lathes, grinders and sanders. The students are also taught to produce working drawings and ground plans using CAD (Computer Aided Design), budgeting and ordering of materials, technical stage management skills and the principles of masking and sightlines.

One of the best aspects of the course is a four to six weeks professional attachment to a theatre or scenic contractor and this course leads to the award of a postgraduate diploma in Scenic Construction. For the best impression of Janine's creativity and colour photographs of her work please go to Janine's website.

Phil: Are you still a member of the Lace Market Theatre?

Janine: No, as I spend most of my time down in London now. However, I would like to thank the Lace Market Theatre for the support they gave me throughout my course and not only the generous donation from the Lace Market Theatre charitable trust that helped me, but also to the members that have wished me well and kept in touch!

Phil: I understand that the scenic construction course at RADA only accept a few people per two year course. What was it about your attitude, experience and qualifications that led them to accept you?
Janine: Yes they take up to three students a year on the course. There were three of us in total in my year and we all came from very different backgrounds and not all from the theatre. Although it is a postgraduate course you do not need an undergraduate degree to apply or get on to it - just relevant experience. I think that they look for enthusiasm for the subject, dedication to build on existing skills as well as wanting to learn new ones!

Phil: London is an expensive city to exist in, would you have any personal advice for any applicant about funding oneself through a drama school course?

Janine: I would start early! You will find that you send a lot of letters and not get many responses. Funding, especially for the arts, is difficult to come by but there are a few good websites and there is a charity almanac that lists all the charities in the UK and their criteria. It is long slog and very time consuming, but worth it. I would also keep note of who you have written to and if they have responded. I have written a entry about funding advice you can find it at my blog: http://jforster-creativetypes.blogspot.co.uk/

Phil: Did you manage to get any help with finding contacts within the industry?

Janine: As part of the course you have to undertake a six week placement within the industry which the tutors and staff at RADA have established contacts with.

Phil: Was the course itself a challenge for you in terms of expanding your creative nature?
Janine: I absolutely loved the course and I would say it is the best thing that I have done. The mixture of working on productions every six weeks with personal projects gave me a great balance. The roles undertaken for the productions prepare you for working within the profession and with professional designers (RADA productions are designed by external professional designers as well as the students on the design course). The personal projects were there to improve key skills needed for scenic construction but also to give you the opportunity to get really creative and to design as well as make.

Phil: How intensive was the course?

Janine: The course was very intensive especially during build week and the run up to a show when you could be working up to twelve hours a day, six days a week . Definitely not nine to five but then again set construction is not a nine to five type of career. Also, RADA is what you take from it. During the weeks between the shows (when you could leave at five) I tended to stay late anyway to work on personal projects and learn new skills. The great thing about RADA is that it is so friendly and that there is always someone about, so if you wanted to know a little bit more about lighting or how to make a certain prop there was always someone (whether a tutor or other specialist) about to show you.

Phil: To what degree was the course practical and theoretical ?

Janine: I would say that it was 99% practical. There are some lectures, developmental talks, and health and safety training that take place at the beginning of the year. The undergraduate course also has a few more lectures about theatre history and the different types of roles in the theatre which the specialists are welcome to attend. You are continually assessed instead of having exams at the end of the year

Phil: Given your experience at the Lace Market Theatre in designing and building sets, what would you say were the major differences between the amateur world and the professional world?

Janine: I would say from a construction point of view that it is a little more removed from the actual theatre space, even if you are lucky enough to work for a producing house you will be in a workshop space away from the theatre spaces. If you work for a scenery building company you can find yourself not being involved in the fit up or visiting the venue at all!

Phil: Did you do any artistic work outside of the RADA spaces to gain experience?

Janine: I personally did not, other than my placement.

Phil: Does RADA have a support system for its graduates in finding work or contacts?
Janine: This is going to sound really cheesy but RADA is like a family! You spend up to two years (on some courses) of your life with the same group of people and because RADA is a very small community everybody knows everyone else. So once you have graduated you can pop back and say "hello" to use the facilities or ask a former tutor for advice and I would say that it is an excellent support system! As far as contacts and finding work goes there is nothing formal in place (i.e. job boards or newsletters) but more of a 'word of mouth' network - 'I heard that so and so was looking for a carpenter... you should get in touch’ type of thing.

Phil: Overall how did you find the course and did it meet up to your expectations?

Janine: It utterly surpassed them! I would very much recommend the courses at RADA.

For an overall view of the courses run through RADA visit http://www.rada.ac.uk/courses-at-rada

Playing Gethin Price in Comedians by Trevor Griffith.

Some considered thoughts about being involved in a production of Trevor Griffith's play, 'Comedians' at the Lace Market Theatre, Nottingham, in April 1995.

Notes from the Lace Market Theatre programme.

“We work through laughter, not for it. (…) A joke releases the tension, says the un-sayable, any joke pretty well. But a true joke, a comedian's joke, has to do more than release tension, it has to liberate the will and the desire, it has to change the situation... there's very little won't take a joke. But when a joke bases itself upon a distortion – a 'stereotype', perhaps – and gives the lie to the truth, as to win a laugh and stay in favour, we've moved a way from the comic art and into the world of entertainment and slick success.” (Trevor Griffiths, Comedians, Act 1)

I think that the quotation above is a key to the heart of the play in terms of determining a dangerous/ harsh truth through laughter (often based on an element of distort and cruelty) and the 'staying in favour' aspect refers, in my opinion, to the pulling back of the 'punch' line to a gentler and perhaps more publicly acceptable definition of funny = light entertainment. The cruel humour of Gethin Price serves to demonstrate the bruised skeleton of the future of no holds barred comedy. A true theatre of cruelty.

This particular production's audition for an all make cast was open to women and the role of Sammy Samuels was offered to Anne Bone. The casting added an additionally interesting male/female often, potentially violent, conflict between the characters Gethin Price and Ms Sammy Samuels. The caretaker was also cast as a female role and humorously played by Barbara Fisher.

 

 

The first production of the play ' Comedians' by Trevor Griffiths was performed at the Nottingham Playhouse, February 20^th 1975 and then at the Old Vic: September 24^th 1975. Jonathan Pryce played Gethin Price and Jimmy Jewel, Eddie Waters.

 

 

 

Nottingham Playhouse and Richard Eyre as they appear in the original programme

 

 

 

The Lace Market Theatre production.

 

Story in brief.

Eddie Waters is an older, formerly professional, comedian generously imparting his skills to a class of mixed ability, would be working class comedians. He is written as a man who stopped being funny at a point in his life and rarely says anything funny through the whole drama. He teaches them to look for the truth: the implication is that society can be changed by persuasion. His main principles are that the comedians confront/reject comedy that reinforces stereotypes, that attacks gay people, the Irish, the blacks, women or a particularly 1970s comedy scapegoat, the Pakistanis. Interestingly, this play pre-dated the rise of alternative comedy in the 1980s and practically leaks sexism and racism from every sweaty pore, deliberately.

 

Water's students are due to perform their acts to a live audience in a Bingo Club and to a Mr Bert Challenor, and old foe of Waters who can offer the most talented members of the group a contract to play the working men's clubs.

 

Vince Handley as George McBrain

 

There are two staged venues: the classroom where the evening class is held; a bingo hall where they perform and then back in the classroom when the performance is over. Bert Challenor gives them a preparatory chat before they leave the safety of the class and insists on the need to be entertaining and that the audience is their paymaster. He perceives the entertainer, Max Bygraves, to be the ultimate standard of comic perfection. Gethin Price is disgusted at this news and has changed his comedy act at the last minute much to Eddie Waters dismay and surprise. Gethin is seen by Waters as the shining star of the group and is considered by the rest of the group as a teacher's pet and a strange character.

Divided between Waters and Challenor's opposing views, most of the class have moments of doubt about the forthcoming event, and start to reconsider their comedic futures and the desperate hope of escaping their dead end jobs.

 

 

Gethin Price performs a very different act to what has been expected in rejection to Eddie Water's ideals. During his performance, Price, paying tribute to Grock, the famous clown, wears a white face and launches an attack on a pair of dummies, a man and woman in evening dress. He pins a flower on the woman's dress and blood appears. Eddie Waters is hurt to find that Price's act is fuelled by hate, lacking in compassion and, as far as Waters is concerned, the truth. Comedic truth/ liberating truth. At the end of a dispiriting evening after the others have left, Waters and Price bitterly argue about the purpose of comedy. The raging Price explains that he favours revolution against gradual reform.

 

 

                                                         Stuart Power as Eddie Waters.

Eddie Waters fights to regain his moral ground and explains to Price that he once went to a German Prison of War camp after the war and he was attracted and also repelled by what his intellectual and unexpectedly erotic feelings gave lie to there.

The play ends on a quasi optimistic note but with shadows of doubt from all the participants. Two are chosen by Bert Challenor to get contracts to work the clubs and the rest are rejected. Throughout the play a bitter dark vein of comedy prevails. End.

I was attracted to the role of Gethin Price after seeing a TV version of the play with Jonathan Pryce as Gethin. I patiently waited years to be offered an opportunity to play this part and it was my first role at the Lace Market Theatre in 1995. My favourite part of the rehearsals was when I had some time to look at the role having learnt a lot of his dialogue and to find a way for the character to inhabit the stage. I virtually looked like a skinhead so an aggressive walk was created, exaggerated and toned down for realism. I like that kind of approach. My accent was a whiny Manchester accent with hints of danger, knowing bitterness and sarcasm.

Although the comedy 'act' for Gethin was written out in the script there was a lot of opportunities for the 'action' to be improvised, i.e: the Kung Fu, the aggression toward the models and the audience themselves and the upper middle class. Any actor who plays this role must love the variety that Gethin's 'act' provides.

Review in Arts Extra (Nottingham Evening Post) by Joan Appleton.

LOOKING AT THE EDGE OF COMEDY.

Comedy is a serious business. The would be comics in Trevor Griffith's powerful play 'Comedians', which the Lace Market Theatre presents this week, go through a rigorous training under 'old pro' Eddie Waters, played movingly by Stuart Power.

The Murray Brothers (Steve Herring and Andrew Haynes) come hilariously to grief, the two Irish boys (Vince Handley and Keith Milne) turn in predictably funny performances.

The Jewish comic, originally a man but played here by Anne Bone, had a nice line in mock aggressive humour.

But the real aggression comes from Gethin Price, a violent man driven by hatred and resentment played brilliantly by Philip Lowe as a weasely white faced clown.

If humour, as Griffiths says, has to be based on the truth, then perhaps his is the best kind. Only you don't laugh.

Cynthia March directs the ensemble, which includes a morose caretaker (Barbara Fisher), a lost Indian (Adrian Perkins) and a smooth Cockney agent (John Hunt) with fine attention to detail.

Martin Hooper's set, a grimy classroom which becomes, after the interval, a sparkling Bingo Club, leaves little to the imagination.

Twenty years after the play first opened, the boundaries of what we may laugh at has widened. Comics go further. We follow uneasily. The message seems to be that you can joke about everything provided it is done from love.

Comedians is a thought provoking play given a marvellous production by a first rate cast. It can be seen at the Lace Market Theatre until Saturday.

April 1995.