The Secret Lives of Henry and Alice

Centenary Theatre Company recently filmed and streamed the play ‘The Secret Lives of Henry and Alice’, online to virtual audiences across the Northwest and USA!  Having had to change to filming/streaming due to the fact their local theatre has still not opened its doors since the pandemic; has meant that this play has been made available to a more diverse and international audience.  Directed by Kit Phillips, this play tells the story of the two protagonists (Henry & Alice) and their journey of how they transcended into an unhappy marriage.  This play was filmed on location with a purpose-built set which looked fantastic.  I loved the way the set was built; it was striking and purposeful from the outset.  An issue I had, however, was that the furniture used to dress Henry & Alice’s house stayed in position for the entire production, even when the action was taking place in other locations.  I felt there was ample opportunities to change/dress/utilise the furniture in more ways to establish location so that it was more interesting for the audience; especially as it was being filmed. 

Kit Phillips directed this play using direct address to the camera during fantasy sequences as well as having a kitchen sink approach for the naturalistic scenes.  It was clear at the beginning when the actors were in fantasy sequences and when not, due to the subtle lighting changes.  Sadly, this was not consistent enough throughout, and might have been confusing for audiences.  I have to admit, there were times when I wasn’t clear what was going on and which actors were playing which characters.  Perhaps it might have been clearer to have a stronger costume change or lighting change when the actors were playing different characters other than Henry & Alice? 

Because this play was filmed using two cameras, this meant that there were some minor mistakes in the editing process, such as the actor playing Henry looking into the wrong camera in the direct address moments.  In one camera, the set and costumes looked red and the other camera, they looked orange.  I doubt many audience members would’ve noticed this, however.

Whilst it was great seeing the two actors playing all of the roles; thus learning a huge amount of lines, For me, there wasn’t enough light and shade nor likeability factor for either character.  The way it was directed, I didn’t warm to either Henry or Alice and didn’t much care about the state of their marriage.  I felt perhaps there were lots of opportunities to explore the comedic side of their personalities, which would have made them more likeable.  This was a comedy by David Tristram – suffice to say, I found it rather depressing.

I am of course being a little harsh.  In the second half, there definitely was a little more light and shade and we got to see more of the character of Alice.  There were plenty of sweeter moments.  The scene when Alice was fighting with the vacuum cleaner was funny and well played, as was the scene with the American Commentator(s) on the American football game which was well played, directed and edited.  I loved the metaphor between Orca the Goldfish and Alice ‘circling around waiting to die’, which was even funnier as it was straight after the scene when Alice and Henry had fish and chips for tea!

Other little directorial niggles for me were Henry feeding the fish four times (unless this was meant to happen) and Alice downing a glass of water (twice) which was clearly empty.  Some props were used well and others for show – a lack of consistency.  I did love, however the music choices for the fantasy scenes and scene changes – which added to the overall humour and added another layer to the scene.  The music for the seduction of Brian the Salesman was brilliant!

Mike Pirks played the role of Henry (and others).  Whilst it was great to use a wide range of accents to distinguish character(s), the accents were hard to listen to and inconsistent.  There were numerous times for example, when Mike started to talk in an American accent which kept slipping back into English.  Mike also spoke in a higher pitch for Henry but kept this pitch for the other characters too.  Perhaps a great vocal and physical range could’ve been used to portray the different characters?  I really enjoyed the scene when Henry and Alice were discussing having someone over for dinner – this showed a greater depth of character for Mike.

Jayne Dittrich played the role of Alice (and others).  I started off feeling very sorry for Alice as I could see she had the weight of the world on her shoulders, however, by the end I didn’t care for her.  I would’ve preferred if not everything was played in an attacking way; giving us more depth and more to think about as an audience.  As I mentioned above, the scene when Alice was fighting with the vacuum clear was well played.  I also enjoyed the scene when Alice was trying to seduce Brian the Salesman.  Jayne’s Irish accent was hard to listen to, and at times, she devoiced at the end of sentences, especially in fantasy scenes in Act two.  The scene when Alice got ‘the telephone call’ was brilliant and Jayne had some lovely believable reactions. 

I didn’t understand why Jayne had to use the wheelchair when playing the other characters?  I understand that Jayne had an injury, however, could she have been directed to sit on a chair or stand, balancing at the bar/telephone etc?  This would’ve made it clearer to the audience that it wasn’t Alice.

Overall, sadly, for me this play was a comedy stretch.  There wasn’t enough moments that made me laugh nor invest any likeability in the characters.  Everything was played at 100, which left the actors with nowhere to go.  I did enjoy and appreciate the use of split scene, direct address and some ways in which the play was directed, as well as the set design. 

I don’t want this review to depreciate the obvious hard work that has gone into this production.  I thank and I sincerely wish Centenary Theatre Company all the very best for their upcoming production of Strictly More Musicals. 

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