Trivial Pursuits

Following the more bizarre world of their Spring production, Guards! Guards!, Sodbury Players returned to relatively calm domesticity for their Autumn play, Trivial Pursuits.

Set at a summer barbecue, we were greeted by another of Sodbury Players’ trademark sets – very detailed, full of interesting features, in this case a roof for actors to clamber on and a full sized television aerial. I know it has become something of a feature for me to comment on the sets for this company, but when many other societies adopt a ‘that’ll do approach’, it is these little extra touches (the lights around the swing/sofa, for example) that make such a difference, especially with a static set.

Another impressive feature for Sodbury Players is the strength in depth of their casts. After using more than 30 performers in Guards!, a return to a smaller company allowed some new and less familiar faces to step into the limelight, and in some cases break out of the roles with which we may have associated them over the last few years. For me, this was the first time I had seen Pete Williamson in a significant role outside of panto, and his Teddy was a very dominant character, full of bitchy energy, and well-countered by Michaela Sydney’s outrageous Joyce. Together, these two dominated proceedings, but without detracting from the stories that were being told elsewhere, or upstaging their fellow performers. Simon Carney also impressed as put-upon (although all of his own making) Nick, and his ‘everyman’ quality allowed us to warm to his character even if we shouldn’t necessarily have approved of his actions. Tim Ball’s Eddie was also nicely pitched, blundering in as an excellent straight man to add to the absurdity, and Andrew Stubbs’ stillness as the morose Derek was captivating, and perfectly captured the ‘one that everybody wants to avoid’ character, without alienating the audience themselves, which was a very fine line to tread. I was impressed with the consistency of the Welsh accents, throughout, and although this may be slightly stereotyping, the gentle lilt which many of the performers managed to adopt added a little more humour to lines which otherwise may have been lost in more regional accents.

At times, I did feel that the play struggled for pace – partly due to the somewhat repetitive nature of the script, but also due to some hesitancy on lines, from a couple of performers. Although the cast seemed very sure of their own lines, there were a few places, mainly in the second half, where cues weren’t picked up particularly quickly, and where the play needed the energy of a real farce, some of the conversations became a little stilted. Julian Hinton’s direction kept the story moving as well as possible, but there were a few times where we lost some characters towards the back of the stage – my sightline from the front couple of rows meant that occasionally characters moving towards the upstage right corner of the garden (where the barbecue was initially placed) were blocked by actors around the table. This area also seemed dimly lit, meaning that occasionally we lost what the characters were saying as other areas of the stage, particularly the front stage left corner, were more brightly focussed, and by the time we realised our attention should have been elsewhere, a couple of lines of dialogue had passed.

The costumes were well sourced, and very evocative of the late80s/early90s period – I won’t ask whose wardrobe they came from, but I’m pretty sure my Dad actually wore Nick’s shirt to more than one barbecue…! The technical aspects of the production were well executed – the sound effects were subtle, the lighting (despite the odd dark spot) was equally evocative of the day moving into evening as the play progressed, and the finale suitably glittery!

Overall, this was as well-produced as many of Sodbury Players recent productions, but I can’t help feeling that it lacked a little sparkle of some of the groups more impressive efforts in recent years. In part, I would put this down to the play itself – while a play about the machinations of an amateur dramatic society should be comedy gold, the writing at times felt laboured and plot points dragged out, when there are several other plays which deal with the same situations in a more imaginative manner (Ayckbourn’s Chorus of Disapproval for one). That said, it is only by Sodbury Players own high standards that Trivial Pursuits comes up a little short, on a production level, and after a successful summer with the adult pantomime, and the buzz which is already generating around Snow White and Calendar Girls, the future continues to look very bright.

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