A Slice of Saturday

 

A Slice of Saturday night made its West End debut in 1989. It reminded me of Willy Russell’s ‘Stags and Hens’ with its theme of gender-based tribalism. Sue is going out with Gary, Gary flirts with Penny and anyone else he can. Sharon and Rick like each other but are too shy to say. Eddie is challenged by the boys to persuade “frigid” Bridget to touch his “whatsit” by closing time. So of course he tries all night until closing time with little success. Teenagers finding a route through fashion, love, music and sex - nothing ever changes!

 

CATS’ 30 plus-strong cast and production team took up the challenge of this piece of ‘60s nostalgia.

Entering the Club A-Go-Go with music peeling out you felt as though you were actually in the night club, setting the scene straight away with added bouncers (who you would not mess with!).

The set was very functional and areas were well defined with seating & dance areas, raised bar with added dancing pole, band area, Eric the owner’s office, front entrance of the club and ladies and gents toilets. The acting space lent its self to this type of thoughtful set. Using the bouncers as the set movers worked really well and helped the action flow smoothly throughout. Em Cohen’s choreography and the Louise Cohen/David Wilson musical direction complemented each other.

The cast overall worked really well together and Lucy White playing Bridget had some great moments throughout, you seriously don’t want to mess with her! The song “Boy of My Dreams”   she delivered to comic effect.

Jamie Hall as Eddie really had no chance against Bridget and his comic timing was great: loved the scene in the gents toilets with Kenyon Garrish who played Gary. . .

Eddie“I think someone’s spiked mi bleeding  drink”  

Gary “What all 16 of them?!”

. . . Hilarious! Kenyon had a hard role - he needed to have a twinkle in his eye and be charismatic as well as likeable. He achieved all this and more. A definite star in the making and one to watch. Louise Cohen managed to make a stop-start script flow and the costumes added to the feel of the piece.

Thank you for making me feel welcome

 

 

 

 

 

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