Mack and Mabel

What a joy to go and see an old favourite, rarely performed these days.  This is a production with a whole string of beautiful lilting songs which were all sung superbly.  The overture was accompanied by a fascinating black and white silent movie, very cleverly filmed with the cast, giving the audience a great taste of the ‘silent movie’ era.  The set was very simple but effective with the use of a very versatile truck and various appropriate pieces of furniture moved on and off smoothly by cast members or crew in costumes.  This enabled the show to flow uninterrupted from scene to scene. The Keystone Kops sequence was cleverly done on film with just enough actual dancing on stage from a lively and interesting ensemble who all acted very realistically for the type of picture being displayed. The tap routine was outstanding visually, danced in wonderful costumes with masses of enthusiasm.  All the props and costumes looked right for the era, the lighting was outstanding and the chorus singing came over well although they were drowned out by the orchestra at times. My congratulations to Kate Bennett for, once again, directing an excellent production.  Her use of freezes were very impressive and the closing of Act One pure magic.  Danny Owen gave an outstanding performance as Mack Sennett, speaking with total clarity at all times and singing superbly.  I lost track of how many times he sang solo or duets but his rendition of “I Won’t Send Roses” brought tears to my eyes it was so moving.  Caroline Bennett gave a remarkable portrayal of Mabel Normand, a wild and scatty waitress throwing herself around the stage  in a string of 2 reel comedies and then slowly maturing into an elegant woman with a mind of her own and finally declining into a drink and drug dependant with no confidence at the sadly young age of mid thirties.  She also sang outstandingly and very movingly.  All the other principals gave excellent performances especially Vikki Strachan (Lottie Ames) and Matt Harris (Frank Capra).

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