The Real Inspector Hound / The Proposal

The Real Inspector Hound: 

We meet two theatre critics, Moon and Birdboot, who take their seats to view a classic whodunit which to us, the real audience, is a parody of the Agatha Christie stage adaptations. We can see the play they are watching and witness their dissection and discussions of the play, from their comments we soon become aware that the play is dreadful which opens up plenty of humorous opportunities for the cast members playing parts in the play within the play.

The action really came into its own when the piece started over, repeating itself but with one of the critics (Moon) taking part in the play.

Howard Bramwell as Moon needed to find more purpose within his delivery, I felt a lack of conviction in this performance with a missing energy which unfortunately presented a lacklustre outcome. It’s the actor’s job to find the spark within their character to convey an interesting and believable performance.

I could see that both Moon and Birdboot have comedy within their characters but I didn’t feel that the humour was uncovered particularly well. Ross Douglas as Birdboot seemed much more relaxed and presented an adequate interpretation.   

Cynthia was played competently by Anna Sillitoe who had the hammy, melodramatic and stagey delivery nailed, it was clear she was performing in the play within the play through her physicality and deliberate ‘stagey’ voice but, and most important of all, it wasn’t over done!

Both Major Magnus (Joe Cramsie) and Inspector Hound (Roberto Lavorini) offered good chuckles with their natural sense of comedy, two easy and unforced deliveries here. The physical humour was staged with aplomb and kudos for the player (who was sadly left out of the programme) for playing the corpse who was in position when we entered the auditorium and remained in place till the bitter end.

The biggest mention must go to Jenny Hollinshead as Mrs Drudge, a wonderfully stereotypical performance with terrific facial expressions, vocal delivery and physical humour.

The Proposal:

One of Chekov’s humorous one act plays poking at society. We think we’re about to witness an engagement when husband-to-be and bride-to-be argue at every chosen trivial subject of conversation in what becomes a verbal battle to exhaustion before he even gets chance to pop the question. Adam Garnett as Ivan needed to rein it in. His energy levels are incredible but this was out of orbit presenting a throw away, slightly clumsy performance. Adam has got bags of potential to be a terrific character actor with his clear delivery and the exceptional amount of energy, adrenalin and enthusiasm he injected into his performance but just needs to control himself as this was over indulgent for over indulgence sake. Joe Cramsie gave a solid peace maker performance as Stefan, torn between his daughter and possible son-in-laws quarrels.
Anna Sillitoe excelled as Natalia, her idiocy was at the correct balance and delivered the right level of dim to expose the desired comedy, unrecognisable from the previous play baring her versatility.

Director for both of these one act plays; David Black had done an agreeable job on both pieces. Looking at how the audiences experience could have been enhanced, perhaps the set design could have been a little more of a treat for the eye which some could say was a tad dreary. David had presented both plays as the script had instructed which is a significant achievement in itself, he’d introduced some amusing elements in ‘Hound’ with some physical humour (The Inspector’s unintentional cupping of Cynthia’s chest) and Major Magnus's first appearance.

I appreciated how the sound from the radio came from the area of the stage where the radio was positioned rather than being fed through speakers around the auditorium (same with the telephone ringing) and although it makes me cringe being one of my major bug bears, it did make me chuckle when the tea was being poured from a tea pot with no liquid in it – reminding us we’re watching an abysmal production within a production, making it acceptable!

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