Quartet

Whenever I am fortunate enough to see a production of Quartet I realise that it is one of my favourite titles. The writing is simply sublime, and the beautifully drawn characters mean that this piece of genius is right up there with the best.

The action takes place in a residential home for elderly ‘Thespians’ who, like most of us, have no intention of growing old gracefully.  In fact have no intention of accepting that they are old at all. The set was everything I had expected from this society being very cleverly designed and stage managed by Alan Fryar assisted by Kathryn Rowledge and built by the hard working members of the company. The props, organised by Elizabeth Toone and Leslie Turner, were the first thing that caught my attention as they were so well chosen and brought the whole set to life. Greg Mount provided basic lighting which did all that it needed to do bearing in mind the very clever split set, and the hair and make-up was great as it cleverly aged the cast very realistically. Sound, courtesy of Brian Mercer, was also simple until the very end helping to provide a memorable finish to an excellent performance. Well done Rosemary Greig and Kate McArthur. The brilliant costumes were a joy to see throughout.

This is a rare piece of drama where there are only 4 parts all depicting persons over the age of 50 and the dialogue is shared pretty much evenly amongst them, making it a very difficult and demanding script to learn. I thoroughly enjoyed the pauses and thoughtful way the lines were delivered.

Graham Batchelor, the director, as Reginald Paget, portrayed his character to perfection as a man whose whole life has been about books and music. He was the driving force to perform the famous ‘Quartet’ and the one least able to cope with old age. I have always said that the Director of a production should be wary of performing in it. On this occasion I would be wrong. Well done.

Clive Greig as Wilfred Bond was a rather lecherous old man who wobbles around dependant on a stick eyeing up every female in the building. He ogles the girls regardless of their age, pinches their bottoms and pretends to be generally over enthusiastic regarding the sexual interest of life.

Karen Franklin played Cecily Robson who was suffering from spasmodic memory loss.  She must have spent time studying the vagaries of the elderly whose memory is bad, as her performance was convincing.

To complete the cast was Julie Waite as Jean Horton who, on arrival, discovered that one of her husbands was already in residence. Did she move there to be near him? We soon discover that their marriage only lasted about 9 hours. Julie is an exceptional performer with a long string of Musical successes to her name but this was her first effort at a play and she was superb.

What a great evening’s entertainment, thank you.

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