The Admirable Crichton

Written in 1902 by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M.Barrie, The Admirable Crichton is a satirical comedy dealing with the subtlety of the English Victorian class system with its rigorous rules and etiquette.

Tim Clegg played Lord Loam, who is seen as somewhat of a radical of this era, insistent upon such nonsense as once a month the servants are treated as equals and the family serve them, this is simply not done in polite society and causes much consternation between the various classes and household hierarchy.

A trip on the family yacht is planned, all is well until disaster strikes, when the yacht becomes shipwrecked, we find our floundering aristocrats having to fend for themselves on a desert island in the Atlantic miles from civilisation with only a couple of servants to meet there endless requirements.

Butler - Bill Crichton, played so effortlessly by Jason Whitehurst, is himself steeped in the premise that everyone has a position or place in life and they should know, respect and accept their collective lot.

The Honorable Earnest Woolley, a writer and nephew, I'm not saying Rob Stanway has based the equally likeable and loathsome in equal measures character on any particular current blonde silver spoon politician but...

Mike Duckworth as The Reverend John Treherne, brought a humility to the performance which really shows the quality of the author's writing and indeed his expose of the British class system.

Jen MacEachan as Tweeny, delivered most of the humour, be it with dialogue or gesture excellent performance, her interplay with both Crichton and Lady Mary was very funny.

Emma Wilson as Lady Mary, a stickler for the rules of class brings the joy of life to how the island life changes her whole demeanour, again excellent performance.

Together with her sisters Lady Agatha and Lady Catherine, Lauren Turner and Hannah Adams the sense of release from the confines of societies expectations not to mention their corsets, was shown well

Suitor, Lord Brocklehurst, Alex MacIvor and matriarch Lady Brocklehurst, Sue Coles, add a pomp to proceedings. All of the supporting cast added to the overall feel which was good.

It soon becomes patently obvious that the Upper Class are utterly useless and Crichton steps out of his servile role becoming 'The Gov', turning the natural order of things completely on its head, organising the Lords and Ladies into useful members of island society.

Eventually through hard work they achieve a mutually reliant society, of course after two years or so human nature begins to raise its ugly head, our hero has his choice, a wedding is planned will it come to pass will it end in tears?

Director Kath Walton gave us a clever funny show, aided and abetted by her production team and cast. The shipwreck scene was brilliantly effective, the set with minimal dressing changed from Mayfair to the yacht to Desert Island back to Mayfair effortlessly.

I really enjoyed the overall look and feel, the lighting, sound and scenery all created the right atmosphere for the show, well written, directed and played. My only gripe really was the attention to detail of costumes. This is set in a highly moralistic period, ladies were extremely demure at all times, ladies would have little or no bare flesh in the Mayfair scenes and certainly not bare legs and sandals with visible tattoos.

Similarly on the island Tweeny's shoes could have covered her foot tattoo. I know it's the fashion and some might say it doesn't really matter, I am merely making a point about aesthetics. The show apart from those very minor issues was excellent, in fact, it was admirable, simply admirable.

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