The Full Monty

The "Full Monty" was Sam Sampson's directorial debut for Fareham Musical Society and what a wonderfully heart-warming show he gave us. Although based on the British film, for reasons best know to its American producers the action has been moved from Sheffield to Chicago - but the story is much the same. A group of unemployed, desperate factory workers band together to perform a strip show in the hope that the $50,000 fee will solve all their problems. In fact, it is the journey they go through which is their saviour.

Everyone remembers this show for the iconic strip scene at the end, but there is much more to it than that. The director and cast bring out the story that is cleverly woven into it, clearly portraying the desperation and insecurity of men who've been thrown on the scrapheap, trying to survive and regain their self-respect.

Stuart Frank brought real emotion to the part of organiser Jerry, desperate to be part of his son's life. Tristan Redwood also excelled as his son Nathan, and their scenes together were really touching, especially in the song Breeze Off the River.

The growing love affair between Malcolm (Dan Roberts) and Ethan (Gareth Billington) was handled very delicately, right from the first realisation that The Sound of Music was their favourite film to Ethan's open support for Malcolm at his mother's funeral. The funeral song, You Walk With Me is, to my mind, the best in the show and they both sang it beautifully and with real feeling.

It takes great talent both from the writers and the actors to make a song about suicide so uproariously funny, but Jerry, Malcom and Dave (played so well by Alex Howat) did Big-ass Rock full justice, and the real car on stage added the necessary realism.

Graeme Clements and Hannah Edwins were perfectly matched as Harold, the former boss, and his spendaholic wife Vicki. Hannah portrayed Vicki in a much more upbeat way than I've ever seen it done before, and her sparky, over the top performance worked really well. Graeme was every inch the downtrodden husband trying to hide the redundancy from his wife, until the repossessions start and he no longer can. Alex Howat really made us feel Dave's dilemma: take a meaningless job to pay the bills or join the strippers, and the scene with the cling film was hilarious and heart-breaking at the same time.

The other women in the cast were all excellent and portrayed how terrifying a group of women can be when hyped up on a girly night out! Off-stage noise was kept up well, something that, for some reason, is not always easy to do.

The set was simple, but more than adequately gave us the atmosphere of the different locations without being too cumbersome to alter for the frequent changes, undertaken well by the hard-working stage crew. The lighting also added great atmosphere and the blast of light into the audience spared the cast's blushes at the climax of the strip scene, much to the disappointment of many in the audience, except those who knew when to close their eyes!

The orchestra, under the capable direction of Val Tucker, gave us just the right brassy sound - quiet and subtle when necessary but loud and strident for the big scenes.

It's a brave man who reveals all in front of an audience, but speaking to people who have played these roles before, it is not just the characters who find stripping liberating the actors can too. Congratulations to Sam Sampson on his directorial debut with this company.  I hope the whole company enjoy the rest of the run of this wonderful, liberating and life-affirming show.

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