Reviews:
by Lynn Richell, Bournemouth Echo
THIS play is billed as a modern-day love story which is full of humour and sadness, and it certainly lives up to its billing. The theme is about a younger woman who is full of life and energy coming into an older man’s life and changing him forever.
The actors at the start took a little while to get into their stride but I thought Darren Taylor (Tim) gave a very natural performance. Ellie Cowley as Annie bursts onto the stage and not only takes Charles (Lee Tilson) by storm but the whole audience as well. This was a performance of the highest order, so sensitively played that when she leaves Charles, not only is his world shattered by her but so is the audience’s.
The rapport between Annie and Charles is obvious for all to see. Lee Tilson, who was never off the stage, was superb as the bipolar Charles. His performance taking us through the complete range of emotions, from highs to lows, from joy to sadness.
Although, for me, the play was a little overlong, I think it is an incredible piece of writing and congratulations must go to Les Clarke who wrote and directed it.
by Linda Kirkman, Scene One
THIS play, written and directed by local playwright Les Clarke, is receiving its world premiere this week and gets the Club’s new season off to a flying start.
Billed as a ‘modern-day love story’, it centres round 61-year-old theatre director Charles, who is bi-polar, and his relationship with 23-year-old Annie, a writer who unexpectedly turns up at his door when he is in a particularly depressed state. I found the story deeply moving, although the apparent suddenness of Annie’s emotional switch didn’t quite ring true, and the ending was rather predictable. However, I cannot imagine two people who could have played the roles any better than Lee Tilson and Ellie Cowley, with the former, who was never off stage, brilliantly depicting a man fluctuating between the extreme highs and lows of both his condition and his situation and the latter so bubbly, enthusiastic and absolutely convincing and natural.
Those roles were well drawn, as was that of health professional Janet (Naomi Unwin), but I felt that the character of Tim, Charles’ agent and friend, was not written with enough depth to allow Darren Taylor to do much with it other than to repeatedly agonise over events, unfortunately also using gestures so repetitive that I began to anticipate them.
There were some clever choices of incidental music and the set looked the part – although I did wonder why, when the script implied that Charles clearly specialised in serious plays such as Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, the posters on the wall, presumably meant to be of some of his productions, included lightweight musicals such as Thoroughly Modern Millie.
The production runs until Saturday and is well worth seeing. |
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