Billy Liar

Many thanks to The Windmill Players for inviting me to their production of Billy Liar on Friday 14th October at Thornton Little Theatre.

Billy Liar is a 1959 Novel by Keith Waterhouse which was later adapted into a 3-Act play, a BAFTA and Golden Lion nominated film, a musical and a 1970s sitcom which ran for 25 episodes. This semi-comical story follows Billy Fisher, a 19-year-old Yorkshire lad and compulsive liar, living in his self-constructed fantasy world. He lives at home with his parents and grandmother, is juggling two fiancées with a third love interest and is just holding on to a dead-end job as an undertaker’s clerk but amongst all this, Billy has grand plans to run away to London to be a script writer.

Upon my arrival I was kindly greeted by David Baxter, who was running Front of House and offered me a tour of the theatre and set.  When I saw the set I was immediately impressed by the detail and accuracy of the period features - I was very clearly looking at a 1960s living room. The team of 5 set-builders - Ian Flynn, Peter Brown, David Thompson, Alan Waterfield and Malcolm Holroyd - are to be congratulated on a very impressive construction, complete with typical ‘60s picture rails, light switches, door bell and balustrades on the partial staircase. The living room was fully furnished and decorated throughout and all props were appropriate to the period; congratulations to all involved.

Downstage left was a hallway area accessed through a doorway, which housed the telephone table and a large potted plant. This was just as detailed in decor as the main living room and good use of lighting drew attention away from the main set to this area at appropriate times. Downstage right was the front door to the house with its working doorbell and a front garden area complete with bench, astroturf lawn and a number of real plants and small trees provided by The Plant Place, which really added to the authenticity of the garden and was a very nice touch. The garden stretched from the front door around the side and to the front of the house, in front of the invisible living room 4th wall. Again, lighting was used to good effect to draw attention to the garden as required, whilst still being able to see life going on inside the house.

As the stage was filled right up to the edge of the apron with the static set and garden scene, effective use was made of the steps downstage right as the garden path, which enabled use of the doors on both sides of the auditorium as entrances and exits, with the side aisles and space across the front as approaches to the house, drawing the audience into the action at times. This added variety to what is otherwise a very static scene throughout the play, as the majority of the action takes place in the living room. I appreciated this effective direction - well done Angela Hudson and Louise Evans!

Costumes were provided by the cast members with additional input from Angela Hudson and Denise Flynn. I felt these were well chosen and on the whole, accurately represented the ‘60s Northern working class characters.

I would like to mention the prompts, Marjorie Brown and Malcolm Holroyd who were required three times on this particular night. They were clearly very familiar with the script and the way the characters delivered their lines, so they were ready to prompt as soon as they sensed hesitation in the flow of delivery. Although I could hear their intervention it was very subtly done and the actors concerned did not break character at all, so it was only apparent the prompt was required after the fact.

The cast worked cohesively throughout the play, interacting quite organically on the whole and each had very clearly defined and well maintained characterisation. That said, there were occasions when the desire to project lines out towards the audience came at the expense of natural movement and positioning, most notably when “Geoffrey” was ranting, like when he stood lecturing “Billy” who was sat on the sofa. Don’t be afraid to turn a bit more towards the character you’re interacting with as you would in reality. If necessary, consider re-positioning yourself completely in relation to the other character i.e. you could have considered pacing around to the back of the sofa as you ranted and talking down to “Billy” from there. Projection was good throughout - the cast were not using microphones but I had no difficulty hearing anybody. A note for future consideration; be careful when your character needs to deliver lines in an angry or hysterical manner as there was a tendency to lose clarity of diction and speed up the delivery of the dialogue so that it couldn’t be understood. This was a particular issue with some of “Rita''s” lines. I found the pace of dialogue generally to be a little slow so that conversations weren’t really flowing as they should have been, as if they had only just got off book and were thinking hard about the next lines. Possibly a little under rehearsed?

Luke Foley had an impressive amount of script to master as “Billy” and should be congratulated on this alone. I appreciated the way he let the script do the work and didn’t overplay lines for laughs, which led to a natural, relaxed style of delivery. The accents wavered slightly now and then but not so much as to detract from the character created. Overall an enjoyable performance and Luke managed to make an endearing character out of a cheating, thieving, compulsive liar - congratulations!

It was noteable how naturally Liz Danielewicz moved around and interacted with the set as “Alice Fisher” whilst delivering lines and also when in the background of a scene. I fully believed she was at home in her own living room. She also had a lengthy monologue in the final Act which was delivered with plenty of expression that kept me interested throughout - nicely done Liz.

I feel I should congratulate Ruth White purely on the poise with which she delivered “Barbara’s” lines whilst munching her way through a handbag full of oranges! Her portrayal of this prudish, straight-laced woman was superb and I appreciated the way she reacted to the drama around her whilst in the background, without dropping an ounce of her characterisation. I did feel there could have been more of a naturally concerned reaction to grandmother “Florence” collapsing in her chair - it felt a little like “Barbara” had noticed but was waiting for more lines to be delivered before fully acknowledging and reacting to this. Just a minor issue of timing in what was otherwise a solid performance.

For me, the most noteable performance came from Denise Flynn as the grandmother “Florence Boothroyd” who is clearly living with dementia. She was pleasantly living in her own little bubble, having conversations with the sideboard whilst drinking numerous pint pots of tea. She is very much ignored by the family until the end of the 2nd Act when she becomes unwell (and ultimately passes away off stage). Denise’s delivery of her numerous one-liners to herself or any furniture that would listen, was reminiscent of ‘Nana’ from The Royale Family and combined with her obliviousness to the world around her, elicited plenty of laughs from the audience. There wasn’t a single moment when “Florence’s” bubble burst - not only did Denise do a splendid job of ignoring everything else going on around her but the rest of the cast facilitated this by also continuing on as if she wasn’t there. Well done Denise, you should be proud of this convincing performance.

Overall this was an entertaining production and I would like to thank you again on behalf of my guest and I for the invitation. I look forward to seeing future productions from The Windmill Players.

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