Raising Martha

David Spicer was once a writer for Armstrong and Miller. He has contributed to several R4 comedy shows and has had several successful plays produced. "Raising Martha" is a very amusing comedy. The plot concerns the efforts of two brothers to locate the missing bones from their mother's grave. Little do they know the aforementioned former limbs have been inadvertently dug up by a group of animal welfare activists. They have called in the expertise of the local constabulary in the form of one inspector Clout to assist them. Along the way we discover one of the brothers is cultivating a large number of cannabis plants in a specially built room in his house. He also, due to the effects of him sniffing the skin of a cane toad, and who doesn't from time to time, hallucinates that he can see and interact with two 6 foot tall frogs. So an everyday tale of ordinary folk really.

This is a funny play, in every sense of the word. Those members of the audience expecting a normal light farce would have been disappointed. It does in truth take a little time to get into the swing of the plot but once you are on track it is best to keep an open mind and just go with the flow. It is like buying a ticket for a roller coaster and expecting a smooth ride. Jonathan Mallinson, the show's ever jolly director, told me he discovered the play when he was perusing the French's catalogue and was immediately hooked. It is not the type of play to be transferred to the West End or to be turned into a film or musical but it does the basic job of providing lots of laughs. 

Once again the lights went up on a marvellous set. Full marks to the "Usual Suspects" for this. I love their attention to detail including the strategically placed traffic cone, no doubt purloined one dark and stormy night by the stage manager. The Arts Club Theatre is well known for its bijou stage. Yet no less than three sets were simultaneously displayed to good effect with no sense of the action being cramped. That two of the playing areas consisted merely of a table and a sofa was a canny piece of staging allowing the audience not to feel that anything was being squashed. 

Paul Moores and Tim Martin as two of the animal activists (Marc and Jago) played their roles with immense confidence. They had great fun with their lines. They were natural and at ease on stage and should be proud of their performances. The third activist, Caro, Aimee Gallagher, was confident and feisty. In fact, the whole cast moved about the set naturally and are to be admired for their assurance. The two bothers, played by Gary Waugh and Martin Cottam were well cast. They were in every respect able to more than hold their own. This was a very well-balanced cast. Congratulations to Jonathan assembling such an appropriate group. As the plodding inspector Clout, Trevor Lord played to the audience convincingly. His was a time-serving policeman who had been around a bit and was clearly no fool. His costume summed him up to a tee. In fact, all the costumes, be they t-shirts or underpants, assisted the actors in their successful portrayals. Richard Hubbard's atmospheric music clearly established the mood of the production. It is a pity we did not hear more of it.

I must mention the large number of prompts that littered this first-night performance. But in the context of this play.. ...what the heck? Several times these prompts were used to good effect to make the lines even funnier. For example, one actor had forgotten his next line. There was a pause and then the voice of Barabara Chadwick the prompt was heard saying "I was going on to say". This was the missing line. Oh, how amusing! The point was that not only was the line apposite to the situation but it was shown to be by the person receiving the prompt.

The audience lapped this play up. But make no mistake, secreted away in all this nonsense there is a powerful message about the way activists can be easily swayed from their purpose, sprinkled with some deft dialogue not often encountered in plays of this genre. So one should beware of dismissing it as a silly piece of froth. Let's have more of these plays, but perhaps not too often!

 Thank you for your warm welcome, (as usual), Blackburn Arts Club. I enjoyed "Raising Martha" and look forward to "Prescription For Murder" in March.

 

 

 

 

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