The Shell Seekers

The Shell Seekers started life as a lengthy bestselling novel by Rosamunde Pilcher. I read it along with countless other women, but it was so long ago I had forgotten much of the content. It was adapted into a two act play by Terence Brady and Charlotte Bingham and tells the story of family relationships. Of love and marriage where good triumphs over evil in the end: selfish family members see the error of their ways, a faithful servant is rewarded, the underdog husband of the selfish daughter fights back and a young couple marry and live happily ever after in the way that the heroin Penelope couldn’t (because the love of her life, who happened to be the image of the young man, was lost in the war). It flashes back and forth many times and takes a while to grasp. As it is a long book with many descriptive passages, the story, by necessity had been severely cut, but the essence remains. It is commonly supposed to be a woman’s story but judging by the number of men in the audience who showed their appreciation with loud applause at the end, it appealed to everyone. Sadly I never ‘smelt’ the beaches of Cornwall as I did in the book, but then the book was more descriptive.

The multiple scene changes could have presented a problem by slowing the pace of the play, but sensible directors Janet and Sandra appreciated audience understanding by giving just a representation of each location with additional stage props and furniture. The clever single set had been built to allow for this. Two chairs and a table added front of the stage became a restaurant, beach chairs centre stage became a beach in Ibiza. The main set incorporated many working ‘areas’. A conservatory in the home of Penelope where she reflected upon her life in flash backs, George and Nancy’s living room, an art gallery and Lawrence Sterns studio. In front of the stage was the attractive beach of Porthkerris. The famous ‘Shell Seekers’ painting hung on the wall in Penelope’s living room, and this painting had been skilfully recreated by Terri Allen.

The plain back cloth was blue; it served its purpose being plain as the stage was quite ‘busy’ with hedge and trees leading to the conservatory. The set was well designed, built, painted and worked well.

The multiple changes were remarkably enhanced by the well chosen music which helped the audience identify each scene and its location, the differing music was repeated each time the location was revisited. The costumes, sourced by the club fitted both periods and the action very well and were entirely appropriate and worn well by the cast. The lighting was quite acceptable with no special effects required. Sound effects i.e. telephone, was used perfectly on cue.

Portishead Players rely upon stage microphones to reinforce sound. This does rely on the cast being able to project their voices particularly when performing at the rear of the stage. On the Friday night, in early scenes, dialogue could not be heard clearly from my seat, towards the front of the hall. Maybe the sound engineers underestimated the balance required, however it improved in later scenes. Has this club investigated using very good modern personal microphones? The Somerset Hall has a large stage and auditorium and sound reproduction could have been improved. I don’t like to ‘strain to hear, I like to be comfortable in whatever seat and hear clearly.

Entrances and exits were crisp and, positioning on stage in all scenes enabled the audience to observe everything, well done to the crew, changes of scene were speedy, quiet and unobtrusive. Although the play was long, the good pace didn’t drop and characterisations, which were very good never faltered. It took a while in the first few scenes to sort out what was happening but that is a problem of the play, not the direction and the poor sound at the start didn’t help. Well done directors Janet Griffiths and Sandra Branfield.

Penelope Keeling was excellently portrayed by the very talented Kim Cheasley, this was a study of a seriously ill, very sad old lady with so many memories and Kim managed to convince. Perhaps her makeup immediately led us to believe she was going to die, she looked so ill, just like someone who has come out of hospital with a terminal condition but it was so life like, it was frightening. Well done Kim, believable throughout.

Nancy (Penelope’s elder daughter) was portrayed by Cate Hill. This was not a portrayal which endeared her to the audience but she managed perfectly to demonstrate the spiteful, selfishness of her character. A difficult character very well executed.

Olivia (Penelope’s younger daughter) portrayed by Karley Hughes This was another difficult character to portray, Olivia appeared to be the daughter who had her mother’s best interests at heart but we quickly learned she was equally as selfish as her sister, but hid it well. Well performed, an interesting character.

Noel (Penelope’s son) played by Mark Yates. Mark was never quite as nasty as his character should have portrayed. He played Mark as a selfish boor, but I believe his character should have been truly evil. It didn’t really matter, but would have made the character more interesting, but I enjoyed  the performance, well done.

George, the perfect hen pecked husband was played by Tony Sutcliff, I never thought he was quite as henpecked as the dialogue suggested, I think he was always acting, anything for a quiet life, but it was good to see him stand up to be counted later in the play. Well done Tony.

John Fidell gave a masterly performance as Penelope’s father Lawrence, the artiste. Relaxed and unkempt his warm performance and attitude toward young Penelope was beautiful, very well done.

Young Penelope / Antonia - Sarah Pogson gave a superb performance in both roles. Confident, articulate with excellent timing, she gave a very mature, intelligent performance, very well done. I never quite understood why Antonia was taken by Olivia to live with Penelope when she hadn’t been very fond of Antonia’s father. Was she her daughter? I was never certain, poetic licence I imagine.

Richard/ Danus - James Fullick. James showed us he is a very talented performer by managing to convey with obvious but well controlled differences between his two roles of young Richard and Danus. Danus was the young man with secrets and was cleverly and expertly portrayed. He had obviously studied both characters intently and knew them both very well, well done!

Norman Allen gave a beautifully warm and controlled performance as Roy Brookner the art expert/ Penelope’s friend/ executer of Penelope’s will. I enjoyed his performance a lot, he was very well cast.

Ellen (Penelope’s Housekeeper), was portrayed by Carol Richardson. This was a difficult role to portray as there was little opportunity for her to allow Ellen a have a persona. But as a talented actress, she made the part her own, so we knew she loved Penelope, was always concerned for her and would have done anything for her, well done.

The Shell Seekers was a complex and intelligent play, well cast and directed. It certainly gave the audience food for thought as we saw the greed and thoughtlessness of a family of children who were desperately thinking of inheritance not their mother as they waited for her to die. Is it a play I would want to see again? Probably not, I preferred the book as it had very much more rounded characters and all of its descriptions of Cornwall. But Portishead Players did this emotionally multifaceted and difficult to stage, play, full justice and they deserved every clap of the loud and prolonged applause from me and the rest of the audience.

 

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