It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

I have seen this play once before and remember it as being a dark comedy.  The first act of this performance did not really live up to that memory.  A lot of the comedy, inherent in the dialogue, was missed and there were a few rather obvious efforts to ‘be funny’ which didn’t really work.  It’s a shame because the second half picked up nicely and had the audience laughing in all the right places.

The story is somewhat unbelievable but that doesn’t matter in theatre, it is all about the performances, and these were somewhat mixed. Jill Snelling (Arabella) was excellent, a lovely characterisation.  Madeleine Emmerson (Hepzibah) was good but I struggled to hear her lines as she was not projecting very much.  That’s a shame because this character has some great comic lines that needed to be heard.  In fact, vocal projection was not a strong point for a lot of the cast.  This theatre has good acoustics and, if an actor projects properly, the audience should have no problem in hearing the dialogue.

Pauline Neal played the servant Olive well, she has a limited amount of dialogue, so has to rely on a visual interpretation of the characters ‘battiness’ which she did well.  Martyn Williams was the, totally mad, Ebenezer and, for me, he was not as scary as he could be.  There were few intimidating moments, but I felt he could have been much scarier.

The procession of ‘nurses’ answering the rather odd advert all gave good performances, well done to Anna Catchpole (Jane Adams) Gemma Cavini (Mary Shaw) and to Stephanie Firth as Mary’s sister Dorothy.  Keith Williams played the policeman Snell well, although I would suggest that a slower delivery of his dialogue might have made it more understandable.

Victoria Grayling (Belle Malibu) and Paul Kinch (Dawson) made a good pairing.  Josh Handley played the taxi driver Ed Perkins with some nice touches and a strong performance. The cast was completed by Vic Gray as Uncle Silas and Colin Gibbons (Smiling Sam) both excellent cameos.

The sound was well managed, the change of volume in the storm, when the door was opened was good and would not have drowned out the actors if they had been projecting.   However, despite it being a dark and stormy night with rain sound effects, I could not discern anyone with wet shoulders.  Someone backstage with a water spray might have been a good idea!  The set worked well and was very well dressed.  Costumes were right for the play.

Overall an entertaining evening, the audience were complimentary as they left and that is the most important feedback of all.

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