Habeas Corpus

‘Habeas Corpus’ is a play written by Alan Bennett for adult entertainment with comedy is at its heart. This play revolves around Dr. Arthur Wicksteed and his family. The story takes us through the families pursuits for differing partners, mainly for reason of lust. As you can imagine these love triangles get intertwined and everything is far more complicated than everyone first thought. Extra issues arise when the President of British Medical Council caught Dr Wicksteed with his hand in places they should not be. Further problems also develop when a False Breast fitter mistakes numerous pairs of breasts for his products, before he found the ones he was looking for. In the end everyone gets their happy ending and we have the added surprise of unknown family members being reunited after many years apart. The play also makes use of a narrator role, with the family's cleaning lady giving advice and saying things exactly how they are. She often speaks in a poetical manner, which is also done by other cast members. This adds an extra comical dimension to the show. Although this play was first staged in 1973 the comedy within it is still very current and is easily understood by modern day audiences, making this a thoroughly enjoyable play.

The show opened to a very simple set which was static throughout the whole play. This simplistic design of numerous pastel coloured doorways allowed the audience to concentrate on the acting and not being distracted by a busy looking back drop. The set was sturdy and proved very effective with some quirky design features, such as the smaller doorway for the smaller cast member who had a chip on this shoulder about his height. The set also allowed for some interesting stage settings with people appearing from their own doorway throughout the show. Costumes were well fitting and well suited to the characters, matching their personalities.

As the show progressed it was clear that the society had again done a superb job at casting this production. Yet again every member of the cast could be seen to put their all into the role they were fulfilling and made the audience believe the story that was being told. On a whole the cast delivered their lines well and all dialogue could be heard. On the odd occasion a prompt was required but this happened quickly and did not interrupt the pace of the production too much.

The direction of this play has also to be mentioned, as the artistic stage setting used throughout made for exciting viewing. The opening of the show with all cast members dancing and fading off, a couple at a time, which the play also ended with was a nice touch. The use of visual stage hands within the play itself, which themselves had characters that they maintained throughout. They also interacted with the cast members adding to the production and enhanced the comedy. As written in the programme for this show by the Chairman of the Society 'farce always goes down well and farce is what we have for you tonight.' We totally agree with this statement. This play is a farce and it could easily have gone too far and been seen as stupidity, not comedy. Thankfully the first class direction and experienced cast kept the whole production within the realms of comedy and produced a very interesting and amusing show.

Our favourite section of the show was when the Product Examiner came to check the products were fit for purpose and he was mistaken a couple of times, meaning he got his hands onto the wrong ladies. This meant he got intertwined in all sorts of issues, mainly with the Doctor's wife who mistook this as a pass at her and she then would not let the poor boy go. He ended up being tranquilised by a visiting Doctor who thought he was manic. The ridiculously funny scene had everyone in the audience laughing out loud. Another section of the show that was one to remember is when the Doctor performed an examination behind a screen. After a cast member had exposed his bare behind on stage, the rectal examination could be seen in silhouette and it looked very realistic. This scene was cleverly thought out, well staged and obviously well rehearsed.

Overall Blackburn Drama Club has once again produced an enjoyable show. The strong cast made the show a success, but obviously without a good production team the cast would not be able to portray themselves as well as they did.  The society has a quick turnaround from one show to the next but they still manage to produce good quality productions that manage to captivate audiences and create memorable scenes, this is a testament to Society. We look forward to their next production of Humble Boy in 2015.

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