You Never Can Tell
Information
- Date
- 19th July 2025
- Society
- Sinodun Players
- Venue
- The Corn Exchange, Wallingford
- Type of Production
- Play
- Director
- Chris Harris
- Producer
- Sue Brown
- Written By
- George Bernard Shaw
The production captured time and place very effectively, with the action set in and around the Marine Hotel, Torquay, at the end of the Edwardian era in 1910. The set design utilised the unusual technique of hanging scenery pieces from a suspended frame above the stage, positioned within an outer box of theatre blacks and a rather splendid, mildly impressionistic backcloth of the beach which simply radiated warm sunshine and languid summer days. The hung pieces – a doorway here, an isolated window there – cleverly evoked different settings without necessitating vast areas of painted flat or canvas. This efficiency spilled over into the set dressing: a white metal seat for two, which looked perfectly at home on the hotel terrace, was transformed into an elegant indoor seat with an appropriate fabric throw.
But this was efficiency without compromise. The centrepiece of the surgery was an antique dentist’s chair, which of itself was enough to provoke an involuntary shudder in anyone who has undergone treatment recently. The chair was backed up by the paraphernalia of anaesthesia, and by an explanatory item in the characteristically fascinating programme. Happily, the experiences of the characters fated to sit in that chair seemed painless enough. The attention to detail extended to the place settings for a family lunch, with a pristine linen tablecloth showing off the sparkling glasses, gleaming cutlery, and a succession of plated courses. I was too far back in the auditorium to determine exactly what was on the menu, but it all looked very convincing and the scene had a natural energy about it as a result.
The period look of the piece was maintained in some excellent costumes which also provided a useful indicator of character and class. The status of dentists clearly wasn’t as high then as it is now, as Valentine swapped his tunic for a blazer when accepting his invitation to lunch, in marked contrast to the suits sported by the landlords and lawyers. There was an authoritative primness to the severe cut and serious fabrics of matriarch Mrs Clandon’s skirts and blouses, echoed in the formality of elder daughter Gloria’s outfits, but absent in the looser, lighter dresses of younger daughter Dolly.
The production values, then, were impressively and consistently high: everything felt very deliberate and meaningful, and every aspect complemented the others. The director evidently had a clear vision of what he wanted the play to look like, and a strong team around him to help him to realise that vision. Happily the acting ensemble was able to live up to the standards of the production as a whole. Several members of the cast were making their debuts with the Sinodun Players, and seemed well schooled in the basics: clear diction, crisp cues and controlled gestures. Many of the more established actors gave notably good performances: technically accomplished, and with strong characterisation.
The play defies easy categorisation: a comedy, yes, but one that borders on farce in the plot’s almost absurd dependence on coincidence. A single mother and her three children have recently returned to England after an eighteen year stay in Madeira, with the children expressing interest in the identity of their father. He’s only right here in town, and they’ve somehow managed to invite him to a family lunch! Legal arguments around access and responsibility require learned advice: how convenient that the son of the Head Waiter at their hotel is a top King’s Counsel. But beneath the surface froth of mistaken identities and intentions, Shaw has some serious points to make about changing attitudes, and the role and status of men and women.
The title of the play is derived from the Head Waiter’s habit of saying “You Never Can Tell” alongside some of his more gnomic pronouncements. It’s an apt title for a work which has proved less enduring than some of George Bernard Shaw’s plays such as “Saint Joan” and “Pygmalion”, but which nevertheless splendidly intertwines jokes, relationships and ideas, as the director observes in his programme note. Perhaps it is less sophisticated than some of Shaw’s later works, but it has certainly been treated to a sophisticated production here: the clarity and consistency of the vision, the holistic design, the unwavering attention to detail and a catalogue of accomplished performances resulted in a high quality presentation.
© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.
© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.