Reviews 2005
Reviews 2005
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by Noel Coward, directed Brian Bedford
Stratford Festival, Avon Theatre, Stratford
June 2-October 29, 2005
"Heavenly Entertainment"
The combination of Brian Bedford and British comedy has come to guarantee a fun night out at Stratford. From his “Private Lives” in 2001 to “Present Laughter” in 2003 and “Noises Off” last year, Bedford as director has the knack for capturing the essence of every comedy he takes on and presenting it with stylish precision. His current production of Noel Coward’s “Fallen Angels” is no exception. While it is not perfect, Bedford has such a deft hand in this frothy delight it is sure to please.
“Fallen Angels”, written when Coward was only 22, was first produced in 1925. The plot is almost as rigidly symmetrical as Ionesco’s “The Bald Soprano” (1948). Two wealthy couples, Fred and Julia Sterroll and Willy and Jane Banbury, both live in flats in the same building in London. Julia and Jane are childhood friends who tell each other “everything” as are Fred and Willy. After ten years of marriage, both women miss the lack of passion in their otherwise happy marriages, while both men are pleased that the relationships with their wives have “reached a remarkable sublime plane of affection and good comradeship”. The men set out on a golfing trip to Chicester leaving the women to excite themselves to a frenzy over the immanent arrival in London of Maurice Duclos, a Frenchman with whom both Julia and Jane had had an affair 12 years ago in Italy, Julia in Pisa, Jane in Venice.
The centrepiece of the short three-act play is its second act when Jane and Julia, convinced that Maurice will arrive at any moment that evening, have dinner in Julia’s flat. During the interminable wait, the two best friends become progressively drunk and have a massive falling out.
“Fallen Angels” may be one of Coward’s slighter works, but it has been frequently revived primarily as a showcase of the comedic talents of two “grandes dames” of the theatre of equal power. The most recent revival in London in the 2000-2001 season, one I was lucky enough to see, featured Felicity Kendal as Julia and Frances de la Tour as Jane.
The key to the play is that Jane and Julia should be evenly matched. They were with hilarious results in London. In Stratford they are not. Seana McKenna inhabits the role Julia, with her dry humour and quick tongue, quite naturally. She is a master of subtly getting a laugh with a just change of tone, a pause or a raised eyebrow. In contrast, Lucy Peacock as Jane expends far too much energy in trying to be funny and as a result gives a wholly artificial performance.
Over the years Peacock has developed a series of all-purpose mannerisms--a tottering walk, a wobbly head, over-emphatic delivery and bug-eyes and sudden jaw-dropping--for any comic role she plays. She uses the same combination of mannerisms this season for Dolly Levi in “Hello, Dolly!” To enter with the tottering walk and wobbly head is especially unhelpful in a play where she will have to show her character’s increasing inebriation. In Act 2, McKenna and Peacock don’t match each other at all. While McKenna deliciously details Julia’s descent stage by stage into a stupor, Peacock’s Jane immediately gets dead drunk and then unaccountably sobers up off and on, thus compromising the careful parallelism Coward has set up that is the basis for the play’s humour.
In contrast to the women, Keith Dinicol as Fred and David Kirby as Willy are excellent at playing the two nearly interchangeable husbands. Fred may be more pompous and Willy may be more smug, but the way Dinicol and Kirby play out the husbands’ nearly identical reactions to events bring out both Coward’s satire on conformism among British men and his pre-absurdist view of human reactions as mechanical reflexes.
As Maurice Duclos, Nigel Hamer cuts the appropriately dashing figure but his “French” accent wanders all over Europe without settling anywhere. The most thoroughly delightful performance of the evening comes from veteran actor Joyce Campion as the Sterroll’s new maid, Saunders. Here Campion and Bedford as director greatly improve on the recent London production. Saunders’ periodic revelation of one incredible accomplishment after another are made hysterically funny by Campion’s totally natural, matter-of-fact delivery. The scenes of the diminutive Camion as the enraptured Saunders singing a French song as she elaborately accompanies herself on the piano will forever be etched in my mind as one of the most blissfully funny scenes I’ve witnessed on stage. It’s little wonder Campion received greatest round of applause of anyone in the cast.
The scene is set in the Sterroll’s flat and designer Susan Benson has created a beautiful room of pastels, so lovely you wish you could move in. The walls are decorated with panels of stags facing each other. Are these “harts” making a visual pun on the word or are they references to virgin goddess Diana’s favourite animal, thus wittily commenting on the distinctly non-virginal Jane and Julia? Benson’s costuming is also witty, deliberately dressing Jane and Julia way over the top for what is supposed to be a simple home dinner where they hope Maurice will discover them. The plus-fours she gives Fred and Willy as golfing outfits makes them seem like two characters straight out of P.G. Wodehouse. Michael J. Whitfield’s lighting enhances every aspect of the design. He seems to make the light grow gradually harsher during Act 2, thus cleverly mimicking the two women’s perception as they grow drunker and their eyes more light-sensitive. Don Horsburgh has composed a humorous ditty to accompany the curtain’s rise that helps transport us back to the 1920s.
Despite the uneven pairing of Peacock and McKenna, Bedford’s attention to detail shines through in every aspect of the production. His keen eye and perfect pacing and Joyce Campion’s unforgettable performance make “Fallen Angels” one of the most recommendable shows playing in Stratford this year.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Seana McKenna and Nigel Hamer. ©David Hou.
2005-06-27
Fallen Angels